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Antonio Bastardo’s Horrible Start to 2017 Continues in Latest Pirates Loss

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PITTSBURGH — Antonio Bastardo has not had a great 2017. The Pirates’ veteran left-hander allowed four runs in two-thirds of an inning on Wednesday, allowing the Cincinnati Reds to run away to a 9-2 win and a series sweep.

Bastardo struck out pitcher Amir Garrett and got Billy Hamilton to fly out, but then gave up an infield hit to Brian Peraza and that’s when the trouble started. Joey Votto and Adam Duvall both walked on five pitches and then Eugenio Suarez worked a seven-pitch at-bat for a bases-clearing double.

Bastardo got the hook at that point, and Felipe Rivero allowed Suarez to score, leaving Bastardo with an ERA of 54.00 after four appearances. There was a lot wrong there, from the two quick walks to the elevated pitch count, the hard-hit ball and plenty else. I asked Clint Hurdle if he saw some kind of constant thread in Bastardo’s rough appearances this season.

“He’s one pitch away from rolling through that inning on 11 pitches,” he said. “That just goes to show you the frailty of the game sometimes. A guy rolls over a ball and gets an infield hit, back to back walks an extended at-bat and now you’re looking at more of the challenge that he’s bad. That’s an opportunity. When a man’s struggling and he has to pitch that inning. You’re down four, it’s the bottom of the lineup, you’re trying to protect the bridge to the bullpen. … We need all of them out there contributing. It’s been hard for Antonio right now. We’ll look at some things again. I thought we saw some better things early, but he wasn’t able to put away the inning.”

While Hurdle acknowledged Bastardo’s struggles, he didn’t seem to have any answers when it comes to what’s going on.

Bastardo has thrown 77 pitches this season and 74 percent of them have been four-seam fastballs. That’s a bit more than usual but pretty much in line with his career average. But his velocity is pretty significantly down across the board. His fastball is averaging 90.43 mph and his slider is sitting at 81.63 mph, compared to his career averages of 92.78 and 84.12.

Bastardo is 31 and relief pitchers generally start to see a significant decline in velocity from age 29 on. It’s possible that he simply has lost the physical tools to throw as hard as he once did. Bastardo was not available for comment after the game.

The other issues are typically related. Bastardo got an elevated pitch count and walked two batters. In Votto’s at-bat, Bastardo threw four of five very competitive pitches and got one strike called a ball, probably thanks to Votto’s reputation.

In the at-bat to Duvall, he lost two more pitches that could have been called strikes at the top the of zone. Bastardo could have been trying to compensate for his lack of velocity, but it mostly looks like he got squeezed a bit. The pitch Suarez pulled down the line was high and away, which means that he was able to get around it and get a barrel on it.

On the whole, Bastardo’s command wasn’t off by a lot and he might have been getting squeezed a bit. The walks seem to be correctable, but if he can’t find the lost velocity and pitches on the black outside are getting pulled down the line, things could continue to go poorly for Bastardo.

NOVA HITS A BUMP

Ivan Nova was cruising along until he ran into some trouble in the fourth. He got out of that jam, but it took him 24 pitches to do so. He then gave up four runs in the fifth inning. Hurdle said that he thought Nova’s sinker flattened out after a second consecutive inning with a pitch count over 20.

“I think he missed location a little bit in the fifth inning,” Hurdle said. “The sinker flattened out and it was elevated a little bit more. I don’t know if he got on the side of the ball instead of staying on top of it. We got some balls in some bad spots.”

Nova agreed that locating the sinker was his issue.

“I didn’t make pitches, pitch to where I was supposed to,” he said. “It was location, falling behind the hitter, and they got runs.”

COLD SPELL CONTINUES

The Pirates continued to struggle offensively. They didn’t have as many issues with runners in scoring position as they had the last two nights, simply because they had fewer base runners. Jordy Mercer and Starling Marte combined to go 1 for 8 at the top of the order against Cincinnati left-hander Amir Garrett. Marte, Josh Bell and Adam Frazier all were 0 for 4.

NOTES

Andrew McCutchen hit a double for his first extra base hit of the season. He finished 2 for 4. … David Freese his a two-run home run in the seventh to score both Pirates’ runs. … Hurdle chose to send out Felipe Rivero, Daniel Hudson and Tony Watson in a blowout game because of Bastardo’s struggles and the level of use of Wade LeBlanc, Juan Nicasio and Trevor Williams this week.

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