White Sox spoil sellout, score in double digits again as Pirates' bullpen blows early lead

The Pittsburgh Pirates had the perfect recipe for a breakout game: a sellout crowd, a starting pitcher who didn’t allow a hit through four-plus innings and the cushion of an early three-run lead.

That they found a way to blow it is the story of this season.

The Chicago White Sox hammered the Pirates’ bullpen in a 10-4 win Saturday night before 38,041 at PNC Park as a Mac Miller bobblehead giveaway drew the highest attendance of the season.

It marked the first time the Pirates (39-60) allowed double-digit runs in back-to-back games — following a 10-1 loss Friday — and the third time in their past four games. They have lost 10 of their past 11 games and dropped to 8-24 in interleague play. The Pirates will attempt to avoid a series sweep Sunday afternoon.

“It’s hard, and it’s something we haven’t dealt with,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “The pitching has been so good. Giving up 10 last night, giving up 10 again tonight, and when the pitching has kept us in so many games this year … it’s tough whenever you lose a game that you’re ahead and you have turn it over to the bullpen, who has been so reliable all year. They’re going to continue to be reliable. Those guys in the back end have done a great job, and I have full confidence in them to do that.”

Rookie right-hander Mike Burrows didn’t allow a hit through the first 4¹⁄₃ innings and left with the lead after giving up two runs in the fifth, when a throwing error on a grounder caused chaos.

The Pirates had 13 hits but somehow still lost by six runs — going 3 for 15 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 runners on base — whereas the AL-worst White Sox (34-65) had 13 hits, including six doubles, and went 7 for 13 with runners in scoring position.

“Every loss sucks, especially when you’re on a bender of it,” said Pirates right fielder Bryan Reynolds, who went 3 for 5 with a double. “We got outplayed, I guess. We’re just not doing both at the same time. We pitch and won’t hit, hit and give up runs. We’ve got to get them both firing at the same time.”

The Pirates stranded runners at third base in each of the first two innings — Reynolds in the first, Oneil Cruz after a triple in the second — before capitalizing in the third. Reynolds hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a single by Nick Gonzales and both runners scored on a Ke’Bryan Hayes double to the right-center gap to make it 2-0. With two outs, Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled to center to drive in Hayes and give the Pirates a 3-0 lead.

Burrows kept the White Sox hitless until Luis Robert Jr. hit a grounder to second base with one out in the fifth. Spencer Horwitz tried to make a backhand stop, leaving first base open. Gonzales fielded it but rushed the throw to Burrows, who was covering first. Burrows landed awkwardly on his right hand while trying to field the errant throw, which bounced into the visiting dugout and allowed Robert to advance to second.

After being checked by the trainer, Burrows recorded his sixth strikeout by getting Colson Montgomery swinging at a changeup before giving up a run-scoring single to Lenyn Sosa and an RBI double to Josh Rojas that cut the Pirates’ lead to 3-2.

“I was rushing a little bit after that, but I don’t think that was what affected it,” Burrows said. “I think it was just me getting ahead of myself and kind of rushing through some things in my delivery.”

The Pirates stretched their lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Andrew McCutchen hit a leadoff single and scored when Gonzales doubled off the Clemente Wall in right field to make it 4-2.

The White Sox responded with six runs on six hits in the sixth inning. Miguel Vargas hit a leadoff double off lefty Caleb Ferguson (2-2) and scored on Robert’s single to right to cut their deficit back to one run. Austin Slater followed with a pinch-hit single to center to score Kyle Teel and tie the score, prompting the Pirates to pull Ferguson.

Isaac Mattson inherited runners on first and third with one out and loaded the bases by hitting Sosa with a full-count fastball. Mattson answered by getting Rojas looking at a 94.9 mph fastball inside for a called third strike, but Mike Tauchman hit an 0-2 slider over the middle of the plate 370 feet to center for a bases-clearing double and a 7-4 lead.

Cruz tried to make the catch but crashed into the center field wall. That prompted scant chants of “Sell the team!” from fans. When Chase Meidroth singled to center to score Tauchman to make it 8-4, the chants grew louder. After Mattson walked Andrew Benintendi, Carmen Mlodzinski came on in relief and got Vargas to ground out.

The Pirates put runners on the corners in the sixth after singles by Kiner-Falefa and McCutchen, only for Reynolds to go down swinging. After Teel started the seventh with a double off the top of the Clemente Wall, Robert drew a walk and Sosa hit a two-run single to left to give the White Sox 10 runs for the second consecutive game.

A Mt. Lebanon and Point Park alum who played for the Pirates, Kelly is taking their latest struggles even more personally now that he’s their manager.

“Being from here, it means a lot to me. That’s well known. It’s frustrating for us, it’s frustrating for the fans, it’s frustrating for players,” Kelly said. “We can’t do anything but continue to work hard, continue to show up every day, go out there and do what we can do to get better every day. Continue to press. That’s something that resonates with me every day, to continue to push the staff and the players to do that and show up and go out and play as well as we can for the fans. … We’ve had a tough two games, and we’ve got to find a way to come out (Sunday) and compete well and, hopefully, win the game.”