Pirates lose third in a row, fall to Braves 3-1

The Pittsburgh Pirates were riding high this past weekend after back-to-back series wins against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks, but they’ve fallen back to earth recently with a two-game sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers and now they’ve lost their third game in a row following a 3-1 loss to the surging Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.

After a rough last outing, JT Brubaker was back to being solid, as he went seven innings, giving up three runs on six hits on two walks and seven strikeouts, but the Buccos gave him very little help in the run-scoring department.

Despite out-hitting the Braves 8-6 and the top of the Pittsburgh order finding some success — Ke’Bryan Hayes went 2-for-4 and Bryan Reynolds went 3-for-4 — the Buccos just couldn’t manufacture any runs. Their only one came on a Jack Suwinski solo homer in the fourth, his eighth of the year, which is tied for the Major League lead for rookies.

In addition, Hayes was picked off at first and was also caught stealing at second, which dampened two potential Pittsburgh opportunities, and Braves starter Max Fried struck out eight Buccos despite scattering the hits, while Atlanta’s bullpen struck out five more Pirates, making the total strikeouts of Buccos hitters at 13.

Not too many other Bucco highlights other than Travis Swaggerty getting his first big league hit, though it easily could have been ruled an error after a poor throw from Dansby Swanson.

The Bucs will look to get the offense moving again when they rematch the Braves on Friday night.