Pirates Blanked By Phillies; Never in It, Chandler’s Struggles Continue
Bubba Chandler’s struggles continued and the Pittsburgh Pirates were shut down by Cristopher Sánchez in a 6-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at PNC Park on Saturday evening.
Scoring Plays
Top 1st, 3-0 PHI: Bubba Chandler (1-5) gave up a base hit to Trea Turner and walked Kyle Schwarber before Bryce Harper hammered a 457-foot home run to center field to give the Phillies a three-run lead three batters into the game.
Top 2nd, 5-0 PHI: Schwarber stayed red-hot and plated another run with a double to right field off Chandler. Turner advanced from third base of Jared Triolo’s throw in from right field couldn’t be corralled by second baseman Brandon Lowe.
Top 8th, 6-0 PIT: Turner doubled home Justin Crawford with two outs against Justin Lawrence.
Key Moment
Bryce Harper’s home run was more than enough run support for Cristopher Sánchez (5-2), who extended his scoreless-innings streak to 29.2 innings.
Player of the Game
Cristopher Sánchez threw his fourth-career complete game (first of the season) and set a career-high with 13 strikeouts. The left-hander scattered six hits and didn’t walk a batter.
Stat to Know
Bubba Chandler’s 31 walks in 42 innings this year lead baseball. Last season, he only walked four batters in 31.1 innings after he was promoted to the Pirates in August.
Notable Performances
- Bubba Chandler: 3.0 innings, three hits, five runs (four earned), four walks, two strikeouts, 73 pitches/41 strikes
- Konnor Griffin: 2 for 4, one double
- Bryan Reynolds: 2 for 4, one double
- Nick Gonzales: 2 for 3
Noteworthy
- Jared Triolo made his first-career start in right field. Triolo moved to first base in the top of the fourth inning after Ryan O’Hearn left the game with right quad discomfort.
- The Pirates traded INF Alika Williams to the Athletics for RHP Kyle Robinson.
Up Next
RHP Paul Skenes (6-2, 1.98 ERA) will start for the Pirates (24-22) in the series finale on Sunday. RHP Zack Wheeler (2-0, 2.55 ERA) gets the ball for the Phillies (23-23). First pitch: 1:35 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh/93.7 The Fan.
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watching the Pittsburgh pirates is like watching a minor league baseball team. when the trade deadline comes anyone that is good will be traded for garbage players. why the commissioner of baseball hasn’t given the owner of the pirates 3 years to make the pirates completive and removed them as a major league team into a minor league baseball team and all another city and owner to create another team is beyond me. the pirates always end up picking first and trade good players to end up last. rewarding owners that don’t care about being competitive and put garbage 🗑️ on the the Field is sending the wrong message. the fans and city of Pittsburgh deserve an owner that gives a crap about the players he signs to make it worth the ticket cost and travel time to go to the games. The pirates last won the championship back in 1976 and have been putrid since then. unless the owner of the pirates starts spending money for good remove them as a major league baseball team and open 3 rivers stadium to the city of Pittsburgh for college teams and other stuff. the commissioner of baseball needs to put the owner of the team to a 3 year plan to improve the team or be removed as a major league baseball team. stop paying for tickets to go to games to force the current owner to improve the talent level and prevent him from trading the very talented players they have
Might think about sending Chandler down for a bit to reset and get back in sync..it seems obvious to me that he’s pressing…that’s leading to command issues and walks which leads to pressing more…vicious cycle..just let him pump the brakes in indy for a couple weeks..