PITTSBURGH — Hurston Waldrep served up two devastating home run balls to Pirates first baseman Ryan O’Hearn on Tuesday at PNC Park, and that pretty much told the tale of the Braves’ demise, the team’s third straight loss and 17th defeat in the last 24 games.
O’Hearn would hit one more bomb, a three-run shot, in the Pirates’ 12-4 win. The three dingers gave O’Hearn, who took a curtain call after his sixth-inning blast, 100 homers for his career and a Pirates single-game record 10 RBIs.
“I think we would have won if O’Hearn wasn’t on their team,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “Sometimes guys get locked in and they don’t miss anything.”
If the Phillies were to win Tuesday as well, the Braves’ once double-digit lead in the NL East would be down to two games, the lowest it has been since April 14.
And despite averaging 6.9 runs over their last seven games, the Braves’ record during that stretch is 3-4.
“It all starts on the mound,” Weiss said. “The game falls into place when you get good starts. Just a tough one for (Waldrep) tonight. But that’s where it starts. We’ve swung the bats better as of late, but we gotta put it all together if we’re gonna get rolling.”
Tuesday’s loss was even more disheartening given the team’s start offensively and who they were having success against.
Pirates ace Paul Skenes was on the bump for the Pirates, and the Braves (52-38) were able to scratch across a run against the righty in their first at-bat. Matt Olson’s double off the wall in right and Drake Baldwin’s walk brought up Mauricio Dubón who lobbed a run-scoring single into shallow right.
Waldrep, however, did not have his best stuff in the bottom half — or for the rest of the evening for that matter. The Braves’ right-hander hit Jake Mangum, gave up a single to Brandon Lowe and walked Bryan Reynolds. After a strikeout, O’Hearn stepped in and unloaded on a 1-1 curveball for his third career grand slam that sailed into the right field seats.
Ozzie Albies got the Braves one of those runs back with an RBI single up the middle in the third that cut the deficit to 4-2.
But O’Hearn struck again in the bottom half of the inning with two on and none out. Waldrep fell behind 2-0 before a slider away wasn’t nearly enough away, and O’Hearn went down and crushed it 415 feet to center for a three-run shot.
When O’Hearn came up in the fourth with runners at first and second and one out, the Braves hooked Waldrep from the game.
“Sometimes you gotta tip your cap. Guys have their day,” Waldrep said. “Obviously there’s stuff that we can do, hindsight’s 20-20. He did what he had to do with the two pitches that I gave him. Curveball wasn’t that terrible a pitch, down-and-away, was in the bottom right corner. Same thing with the slider, bottom right corner. Just fell into his swing path and he didn’t miss ‘em.”
Waldrep (0-1) was charged with seven earned runs on six hits. He also walked five. In his two starts with the Braves this season, Waldrep has given up 10 earned runs on 11 hits in less than nine innings of work.
Connor Thomas, a former Georgia Tech standout called up before Tuesday’s game, and who arrived at the ballpark at 4:25 p.m. for a 6:40 game, got two groundouts to end the fourth. But Thomas wasn’t as fortunate in the sixth when he had to face O’Hearn with two on and two out — once again O’Hearn lifted a homer to deep right.
Thomas also gave up an RBI single to Brandon Lowe in the seventh.
The Braves raised the white flag in the eighth by putting shortstop Jorge Mateo on the mound. He allowed a single run.
Mike Yastrzemski had a two-run single in the ninth. That was of little consequence.
Skenes (7-8) wound up giving the Pirates (47-45) six innings. He worked around eight hits and a walk while striking out four.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
