Tim Benz: Pirates' loss to A's was bad enough — how it happened, who was pitching made it worse

Of course, the Pittsburgh Pirates knew their winning streak was going to end at some point.

But it didn’t have to be at six games Tuesday night. Against the rancid Oakland A’s. At home. With their best pitcher on the mound.

No, theoretically, the Pirates could’ve put off a correction back toward the mean for another game or two while the A’s are in town.

After all, Oakland had lost 15 in a row on the road coming into Tuesday’s first pitch at PNC Park. Unfortunately for the Pirates (32-28), the law of averages worked against them and for the lowly A’s (13-50) for a change — to the tune of a stunning 11-2 Oakland win.

That was just Oakland’s sixth victory of the year on the road and their biggest positive margin all season. They entered Sunday’s tilt on pace to go 31-131, and the franchise held a -211 run differential.

“We had a ton of opportunities, and we didn’t capitalize on them,” manager Derek Shelton said of the Pirates’ performance. “We left (nine) men on base. We had the bases loaded. We had first and third a couple of times and didn’t push guys across. We got the guys on base, but we didn’t get them in.”

Some fielding miscues in the sixth didn’t help, either. However, Mitch Keller had the start. Oftentimes, in 2023, if that was the case, nothing else mattered. He had been that good on the mound.

Not so much lately, though. The Pirates right-hander yielded 12 earned runs in his previous 18 innings over three outings in advance of the A’s game. On Tuesday, Keller gave up five earned runs, eight hits and four walks against the worst lineup in the MLB this year.

The A’s won by nine runs.

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“I didn’t execute. I left too many pitches over the middle, and they took advantage. Free passes. Just not a good night,” Keller said.

Shelton offered a more specific assessment: “His breaking stuff wasn’t very sharp. So he didn’t get a ton of swings and misses. On top of that, the fastball command was really inconsistent.”

The top of the sixth was particularly frustrating. After the Pirates managed to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the first two batters reached base on a single and a walk. They advanced on a ground out. Then Aledmys Diaz scored on a single by Jace Peterson to immediately regain the lead 3-2.

We had a Jace up our sleeve ???? pic.twitter.com/vHHPVBeLbw

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) June 7, 2023

That’s when Keller got pulled. Oakland scored two more times in the inning. Peterson ended up with five hits, including two home runs.

Jace sent that one into space ???? pic.twitter.com/QyVksJhQ9C

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) June 7, 2023

HE DID IT AGAIN pic.twitter.com/tEpg8QWOWa

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) June 7, 2023

Normally a 69% strike thrower, Keller did so at just a 58% clip Tuesday. Keller’s ERA has climbed from 2.38 on May 13 to 3.60.

So this has become a trend. It’s one that needs to stop. Because without Keller as an ace, visions of winning a division for the first time since 1992 will fade quickly. For now, the Pirates have slipped into second place behind Milwaukee by half a game since the Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 on Tuesday.

That said, at least Pirates fans in attendance got to see perhaps the worst team in baseball history play its best game of the season.

As if losing to Oakland during a developing pennant race wasn’t memorable enough on its own, regardless of the score.