Pirates blow lead, drop finale to Diamondbacks 9-3

The Pittsburgh Pirates used a captivating fourth inning to build a lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the Bucco bullpen imploded down the stretch, giving up a seven-run seventh inning to fall 9-3 to Arizona in the series finale.

In the fourth, Pittsburgh used some nifty baserunning to help gain the lead. The Bucs executed a double steal between Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz to get things moving, and Hayes later scored off a single from Tucupita Marcano and survived a challenge by Arizona saying he never touched the plate. You be the judge.

A single by Greg Allen then scored Cruz, and while Allen got caught in a rundown between first and second, Marcano came home as well and Allen managed to get back to first safely.

On the mound, JT Brubaker was having another solid start, as he went five innings, giving up two runs off of three hits, with six strikeouts and two walks, with both runs coming in the bottom of the fourth after Pittsburgh scored their three, which left a 3-2 Bucco lead for the bullpen to hold on to. Spoiler alert: they did not.

The Diamondback got seven runs in the seventh inning, getting three off of Chase De Jong and four off of Yerry De Los Santos in just one and a third combined innings, while Pittsburgh got nothing more from their bats to lead to your final tally.

Hayes was your only mult-hit Bucco, going 2-for-4. as the Bucs finished with just five total hits.

They’ll be back in action tonight against the San Francisco Giants.