Musgrove sees another quality start squandered

LOS ANGELES -- With the Pirates’ offense going the way it has been in recent games, the club’s starters have had little to no margin for error. Joe Musgrove looked like he might rise to the challenge, but for the second straight game, things got away from him in a tough seventh inning as the Pirates fell to the Dodgers, 3-1, for their seventh consecutive loss. The defeat dropped the Bucs a game below .500.

Musgrove went toe-to-toe with Clayton Kershaw for the first six innings, holding the Dodgers scoreless and limiting them to five baserunners while striking out five. The seventh inning started off on the wrong note, though, as Musgrove gave up a base hit to Max Muncy, who advanced to third on an Alex Verdugo single and scored on a sac fly to tie the game at 1.

After an Austin Barnes single, Musgrove struck out pinch-hitter Enrique Hernandez, and was poised to escape the frame with the score knotted. Then he hung a first-pitch fastball to Joc Pederson, and Pederson did not miss, splitting the right-field gap with a triple to put the Pirates down by two.

“That’s a situation where, looking back at it, I could second-guess myself all day,” said Musgrove. “But I’d had a good fastball today, my four-seam was true for the most part, my sinker was good. And the pitch that he hits is a pitch that I’m ultimately trying to set him up for something else, and I don’t get it to the spot that I need to, and he did some damage on it.”

Pederson was Musgrove’s last batter of the night, and he exited with 99 pitches thrown. Manager Clint Hurdle had no regrets about letting his starter try to get that final out.

“It’s the seventh inning,” said Hurdle. “I just felt the energy he was bringing. And we’ve kind of passed the baton a couple times on him in the past, it didn’t work. He was fresh, he had pitches. So I thought he had quality stuff. He was the guy.”

Still, the damage had been done, as the only run the Pirates managed came on an Adam Frazier RBI single in the third. They had a golden opportunity in the eighth inning, when the first three men reached against Caleb Ferguson. However, they were unable to get anything going against Pedro Baez, who got a shallow flyout, an infield-fly-rule popout and a strikeout of Josh Bell swinging. The Pirates do not have a single hit with the bases loaded this season, in 16 opportunities.

Between the continued offensive futility and Musgrove’s strong start going for naught, it was yet another frustrating evening for a Pirates team that’s been dealing with a lot of them recently.

“Frustration’s not gonna help them,” said Hurdle. “People get frustrated all the time. You even been in traffic? Does it help when you honk your horn? Frustration doesn’t help. We need to find answers. We need to continue to work and continue to encourage them, maybe to try something different or look at it different.”

Frustration may not help, but catcher Francisco Cervelli is still feeling it over the lineup’s inability to back up its pitchers.

“I’m frustrated because the pitchers are doing everything they can. They’re doing their job, and I’m not doing mine,” said Cervelli. “It’s frustration, of course. I want to help them, everybody wants to help them, and we’re not doing it. We've got to figure it out, and then do it better tomorrow, and stay positive and just not try to do too much. Just see the situation and execute, that’s it.

“No one said it’s easy, but we are big leaguers. We’re supposed to execute. That’s it.”

All five of Musgrove’s starts this season have, in technical terms, been quality starts, and he’s pitched into the seventh inning in each of them. But with an offense that’s averaging just 1.7 runs per game over the past week, he’d have to have been close to immaculate for the team to pick up a win.

“Honestly, that motivates me even more,” said Musgrove. “Keeps me sharp, keeps me on my game when I go out there and I know that runs are hard to come by right now for us, I think it brings me to another level. It’s nice to go out and have a cushion, but at the same time, my job’s to go out there and pitch and not give up runs. So if we’re not scoring any, my job’s to go out and not give up any.

“This is a tough stretch that we’re going through right now. As a starting pitcher, I embrace the challenge. It’s my turn to go out there and set the tone and try to control the game. I came one out short of that tonight.”

Musgrove dealing with stiff shin

On top of everything else, Musgrove endured some physical pain on Saturday, too. In the fifth inning, Kershaw lined a 100 mph comebacker off of Musgrove’s shin, which third baseman Jung-Ho Kang converted into an out. It didn’t affect Musgrove at the time, but he was feeling it after he exited.

“Yeah, it hurt a lot,” said Musgrove. “Hurts more now than it did in the game. But I was just glad we were able to get an out out of it. Would’ve sucked to take one off the shin and not get the out.

“It was on the outside of the shin, but I didn’t really feel much of it during the game. As soon as I came out, it started tightening up, and now it’s getting pretty stiff. Got four days, five days to get it right, so we’re good.”