After stumbling through sweep, Pirates can create separation in standings at Milwaukee

The Pittsburgh Pirates stumbled through a three-game sweep at the Chicago Cubs, a series manager Derek Shelton couldn’t wait to erase from his memory bank.

It was the third time the Pirates have been swept this season, with the other two coming back-to-back at Tampa Bay and at home to Toronto as part of a season-worst seven-game losing streak in May.

If the first-place Pirates (34-33) have one thing going for them, it’s that their next series is against another NL Central rival that can’t seem to make up any ground in the standings. They have a half-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers (34-34) and are one game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds (34-35) and 3 1/2 ahead of the Cubs (31-37).

“We need to wash through this,” Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show Thursday night following a 7-2 loss. “We didn’t play well in this series. We just need to move on and get to Milwaukee.”

The Brewers have lost six consecutive games to stay stuck in second place, including a three-game sweep at home to the Oakland A’s and back-to-back losses at the Minnesota Twins.

Where the Brewers lost all six by three runs or fewer, the Pirates were outscored by 17 runs in the Cubs series and blew leads in all three games. The Pirates gave up three runs or more in six different innings.

“We’ve been through a couple tough stretches already this season,” Shelton said. “This group is pretty resilient. We’ve just got to stay away from the big inning. We had big innings in all three games in this series.”

The Pirates have to overcome their pitching problems if they want to create any separation in the standings.

When they placed right-handed reliever Colin Holderman on the 15-day injured list with right wrist inflammation, the Pirates lost their eighth-inning setup man to All-Star closer David Bednar. Holderman had an 18.00 ERA in his last four games, giving up six earned runs on 10 hits, including two home runs, with two walks and two strikeouts.

After trading reliever Robert Stephenson to Tampa Bay, the Pirates were planning to use righty Dauri Moreta and lefty Jose Hernandez in leverage roles. Moreta is the most likely candidate to take Holderman’s place, but finding a bridge to him could be a challenge.

None of the Pirates starting pitchers against the Cubs — Luis Ortiz, Osvaldo Bido and Johan Oviedo — completed six innings, forcing Shelton to turn to the bullpen to eat innings in all three games. Hernandez and fellow lefty Angel Perdomo have pitched in back-to-back games.

The good news is lefty Rich Hill and righty Mitch Keller are scheduled to start Friday and Saturday, respectively, and are capable of stabilizing the starting rotation by going deeper into starts.

Hill is pitching on six days’ rest after throwing 119 pitches in seven innings in a 14-7 win over the New York Mets on June 9. Keller is pitching on five days’ rest after throwing 106 pitches in seven innings in a 2-1 win over the Mets on Sunday.

That should help the bullpen, which hasn’t required Bednar to pitch since Sunday. But the Pirates might be forced to make another roster move, considering the struggles of right-hander Roansy Contreras.

Contreras has allowed 17 runs on 16 hits, including two homers, in his last four appearances. He surrendered seven runs on six hits in one-third of an inning in his last start, a 9-5 loss to the A’s on June 7, then gave up five runs in 1 1/3 innings of relief in Wednesday’s 10-6 loss to the Cubs.

With the bullpen taxed by the Cubs series, the Pirates will have to make a difficult decision on what to do with Contreras. They can risk another poor performance or make a roster move, as the Pirates are in a stretch of 10 games in as many days and 24 games in 25 days before the All-Star break.

If the Pirates want another starting pitcher, they could promote right-hander Quinn Priester, a 2019 first-round pick who is 7-3 with a 4.29 ERA and 1.44 WHIP and a team-leading 62 strikeouts in 63 innings over 13 starts at Triple-A Indianapolis. If they opt for a reliever, righty Carmen Mlodzinski (2-2, 3.16 ERA) could be a top candidate.

Regardless, the Pirates have to put the sweep behind them, and fast.

“We have to flush,” Shelton said. “We didn’t play well (in Chicago), and we have to go up (to Milwaukee) and start a new series.”