Oviedo deals with discomfort on mound following shutout

ST. LOUIS -- When discussing what went wrong in his outing against the Cardinals, Johan Oviedo reiterated one point.

“I didn’t feel comfortable with anything,” Oviedo said.

Oviedo repeatedly emphasized his lack of comfort on the mound on Sunday after grinding through one of his shortest outings of the season. In the Pirates’ 6-4 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, Oviedo allowed four hits and walked six batters as he allowed five runs (three earned) across 3 2/3 innings, a stark contrast to the shutout he tossed against the Royals just days prior.

Oviedo didn’t dive into what, specifically, was uncomfortable, keeping the specifics close to his chest. The 25-year-old did note that this discomfort -- not necessarily a physical discomfort -- has happened “a lot” over the course of the season.

“The worst part is it’s out of my control,” Oviedo said. “I just need to keep moving forward with it.”

Evidenced by his inability to consistently find the strike zone, Oviedo clearly never found the same comfort in St. Louis that he possessed at Kauffman Stadium. The right-hander threw 49 balls to 48 strikes against the Cardinals, the first time this season that he threw more balls than strikes in a single outing.

Oviedo weaseled his way out of trouble in the first inning, managing to escape a bases-loaded, no-out situation without allowing a single run. Nolan Arenado came close to clearing the bases by smashing a 102.3 mph ground ball toward the left-field corner, but Ke’Bryan Hayes dove to his right, knocked the ball down, then threw home for the force out. Oviedo then induced back-to-back pop outs to end the inning unscathed.

Oviedo found himself in similar trouble in the second, albeit trouble that he could not escape. Oviedo retired the first two batters of the inning, but the Cardinals again loaded the bases by way of a single and back-to-back walks. Oviedo got into a 1-2 count against Nolan Gorman, needing one strike to Houdini his way out of another jam, but Gorman pulled Oviedo’s middle-middle fastball into right field for a two-run single.

After allowing a solo home run to Jordan Walker in the third inning, Oviedo was unable to complete the fourth inning, pulled from his start after walking Arenado to load the bases with two outs. Left-hander Ryan Borucki, who entered for Oviedo, immediately allowed a two-run single to Alec Burleson on the first pitch he threw, both runs being charged to Oviedo.

“It just looked like he over-rotated a little bit and kind of lost his arm slot,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Overall, it was just a lack of fastball command.”

The loss on Sunday was a bitter end to what was otherwise one of the best road trips of Shelton’s managerial tenure. In sum, the Pirates won five games of their six-game road trip against the Royals and Cardinals, sweeping the former and taking two of three from the latter. Pittsburgh won its 63rd game of the season on Saturday to eclipse last year’s record (62-100). With 25 games remaining, there’s a very realistic possibility that the Pirates finish the season in the neighborhood of 75 wins.

“We’re playing well. We can’t let this one game take us away and make us think something else,” said Liover Peguero, who had two hits and an RBI. “We’ve just got to continue to do what we’ve been doing. Playing together and keep moving forward together.”