JT Brubaker’s Struggles Continue as Pirates Get Swept by Dodgers

Over his last 14 starts prior to tonight’s game against the Dodgers, JT Brubaker went 1-10 with a 6.45 ERA and 19 homeruns allowed over 74 innings of work.

The struggles continued again for the right-hander, who went just four innings, allowing eight hits (three homers), and seven earned runs – though he did rack up some strikeouts, recording six of them on the night. His ERA now sits at 5.49 on the year. 

The Dodgers hit the ball hard for the majority of the night off Brubaker. Of the 14 balls put in play against him, 10 had an exit velocity of at least 89 MPH. 

Brubaker, who pitched just 75 innings in 2019 and 2020 combined, has now pitched 116.1 innings during the 2021 campaign, and it’s showing.

The Dodgers plated three runs through their first four at-bats of the night. AJ Pollock led off the game with a single, and Max Muncy followed with an opposite field two-run shot. Justin Turner then doubled, and Corey Seager drove him in with an RBI single.

Pollock hit a two-out home run, en route to his second consecutive three-hit night, extending the Dodgers lead to four.

With two outs in the fourth, Brubaker walked Dodger’s pitcher Mitch White. After a Pollock single, Muncy hit his second homer of the game to give the Dodgers a 7-0 lead.

Look at me. I'm the captain now. pic.twitter.com/IF5FUBoeSa

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 19, 2021

Seager added on again in the sixth with a two-run homer off of Kyle Keller, giving Los Angeles a 9-0 lead.

On the Pirates’ end, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds each saw their six-game hitting streaks snapped, and Colin Moran recorded two of the three Pirate hits on the night.

The Pirates have an off day tomorrow before heading to St. Louis for a weekend series with the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Stat of the Game:

• For the fifth straight game, the Pirates failed to hit a ball out of the ballpark. The Pirates rank dead last in homers in 2021 with just 92 long balls, and are the only team in Major League Baseball to not have 100+ on the year. 

Takeaways: 

• Homerun Bug-a-Bru: Brubaker is tied with Patrick Corbin of the Nationals for most homeruns given up in the National League (28). The 28 homeruns allowed are the most ever given up by a Pirates pitcher through 22 starts in team history. After allowing three more tonight, Brubaker has given up multiple homers in four straight starts. In his last 51.1ip spanning 10 starts, he has surrendered 18 long balls. 
• An Awful August: With the loss, the Pirates have fallen to 2-15 in the month of August. In that stretch, they have been outscored by their opponents 103-51. Of those 51 runs the Bucs have scored, over a quarter of them came in one game (14-4 victory over Milwaukee on 8/14).
• Dodge the Dodgers: The Pirates have not won a game in Dodger Stadium in over five years (8/14/16), a span of 13 games that all ended in the same result. Overall, the Pirates have lost 16 straight to the Dodgers.