Pirates hit rock bottom in another lopsided loss, as AL-worst White Sox sweep 3-game series

Before the Pittsburgh Pirates could put an end to their most embarrassing series, there were dark clouds hovering over PNC Park.

If ever there was a symbolic moment for the Pirates’ season, it came just as they were being swept at home by the worst team in the American League — one that set a modern MLB record with 121 losses last season.

The White Sox homered twice and scored four runs in the first inning and cruised to a 7-2 win Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 19,631 to sweep the three-game series in dominant fashion.

The White Sox became the final major-league team to record a series sweep, outscoring the Pirates, 27-7, in the three-game series. That’s the most runs the Pirates have allowed to an opponent in any series — three or four games — this season. The White Sox had double-digit hits for the third consecutive game against the Pirates, collecting a total of 34.

“It’s never fun getting beat, especially for a whole series like that,” Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes said. “Going into the All-Star break, getting that win and going home and refreshing and coming back, this is definitely not the way you’d want to start.”

Since back-to-back sweeps of the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals, the Pirates (39-61) have lost 11 of their past 12 games and were swept by the Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals and, now, the White Sox. The Pirates dropped to 8-25 in interleague play.

“On the road trip, we had a lot of one-run, in-the-game battles,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “This series was not, obviously.”

Where White Sox starter Aaron Civale allowed one unearned run on three hits and one walk with strikeouts in six innings, Pirates lefty Andrew Heaney gave up seven earned runs for the third time in his past seven starts. Heaney surrendered nine hits, including six for extra bases, with two walks and one strikeout over four innings.

“They jumped on the fastball,” Kelly said. “He wasn’t able to get ahead of some guys there in the first inning, and they jumped on the fastball. They drove it into the gaps and got the home run. You saw him start spinning it a little more after that, got them off balance a little bit — just seemed like they were all over the heater.”

On the second pitch of the game, Chase Meidroth hit a leadoff double off the center-field fence. A fan wearing a glove reached over in an attempt to catch the ball and interfered. The call on the field was upheld after an umpire review to see if it was a home run.

Heaney walked Austin Slater on four pitches, then got Edgar Quero to line out to shortstop, but Miguel Vargas sent his 2-0 sinker 411 feet into the bullpen in left-center for his 11th home run and a 3-0 White Sox lead.

It got worse as Mike Tauchman became the 52nd player to hit a home run into the Allegheny River. Tauchman sent a 1-0 sinker 429 feet for his fifth homer and a four-run advantage.

By that point, Heaney said, his repertoire was limited.

“I was thinking of making up (expletive) pitches,” Heaney said. “I’m throwing 88 mph fastballs, (crappy) breaking balls. And when you fall behind, you don’t have much to get guys out with. I guess narrow margin of error. I’ve got to go make better pitches.”

The Pirates answered in the second inning when Nick Gonzales hit a leadoff double to left that a sliding Michael A. Taylor couldn’t catch, then reached third when Taylor overshot the bag for a throwing error. Oneil Cruz drove Gonzales in with a sacrifice fly to center to cut it to 4-1, but Taylor caught Jack Suwinski’s fly ball to left at the warning track.

The White Sox continued to pile on in the fifth, when Quero drew a leadoff walk, Vargas doubled and Tauchman followed with a two-run double to center for a 7-1 lead.

The Pirates added another run in the ninth, when Andrew McCutchen hit a leadoff double off the center-field wall, advanced to third on a Bryan Reynolds groundout to short and scored on a groundout to third by Gonzales to cut it to 7-2.

Last July, the visiting Pirates swept the White Sox amid what became a 21-game losing streak for Chicago. A year later, the Pirates were swept by the White Sox at home in the most lopsided series of the season.

If that sounds like rock bottom, it could get worse.

The AL-leading Detroit Tigers visit Monday for a three-game series as part of a 10-day, nine-game homestand. The Pirates hope that having two-time All-Star right-hander Paul Skenes on the mound can provide some energy and, even more important, a sense of urgency to stop their skid.

“We’ve got to come back and start the series with the Tigers and play better all around,” Hayes said. “You have no choice. It sucks that you have one of the (worst)-record teams and you lose all three, especially at home. The Tigers, they don’t care how you feel or whatever. They’re going to play hard. They’re a good team, so we’ve got to be ready to go. That’s the thing with baseball: You need everything clicking to be playing well. We’ve got to figure out collectively in the clubhouse what we have to do offensively and defensively what we need to do to get runners on, score runs and limit runs. It’s going to start in here.”