Pirates Set Season Worst Losing Streak Despite Two McCutchen Homers

The Pirates dropped their seventh consecutive game on Sunday, setting a season worst losing streak as they fell 6-5 to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Andrew McCutchen slugged two homers, single handedly spurring the Pirates’ offense to extra innings. Bryan Reynolds singled in the tenth inning to give the Pirates their first lead of the series, but David Bednar couldn’t send the Dodgers packing, surrendering two decisive runs in the bottom of the frame.

Recap:

Bailey Falter retired Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández with little fanfare in the first inning, then ran into trouble with two outs. Freddie Freeman worked the count full, hitting a ground-rule double on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. Will Smith doubled him home, and an Amed Rosario single made it 2-0.

The Dodgers put two runners in scoring position with no outs in the second. Falter retired the next two batters, nearly escaping the inning once again before Hernández doubled, doubling the lead.

McCutchen homered in the third off former Pirates pitcher Tyler Glasnow, trimming the deficit to 4-2 with an opposite field blast that narrowly cleared the wall and passing Ralph Kiner on the Pirates’ all-time RBI leaderboard in the process.

Rowdy Tellez led off the seventh with a double, but two groundouts to the left side of the infield and a Ji-hwan Bae strikeout prevented the Pirates from chipping away at the lead.

Michael A. Taylor beat the throw on an eighth inning infield single. Los Angeles challenged to play unsuccessfully, allowing McCutchen to tie the game when he crushed his second homer of the day off another former Pirate, Anthony Banda.

After Reynolds put Pittsburgh ahead in the tenth, Bednar allowed a leadoff double to Enrique Hernández that tied the game and put the winning run in scoring position. With one inning already under his belt, Bednar nearly pulled a Houdini, sending Jason Heyward and Ohtani back to the dugout empty handed, but Teoscar Hernández called game with an 0-2 single.

Key Moment:

Bednar walked Andy Pages in the tenth on a full count pitch clock violation, then allowed the game-winning hit with two strikes. Either at-bat could’ve helped buy the Pirates another inning.

Star of the Game:

McCutchen, who enjoyed the 20th multi-homer game of his career.

Stat of Interest:

McCutchen faced the Dodgers for four of those multi-homer games, the most of any opponent.

Noteworthy:

• Aroldis Chapman continued his recent streak of blistering velocity, twice hitting 103 miles per hour on the radar gun.

Up Next:

The Pirates will head south on I-5, taking on the San Diego Padres at 9:40 EDT Monday. The Friars will send another former Bucco, Joe Musgrove, to the mound, while Pittsburgh has yet to announce their starter.