Before the Milwaukee Brewers came to town last weekend, the Pittsburgh Pirates were playing excellent baseball. They’d won 12 of their previous 16 games after sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers at PNC Park, also taking series from the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies.
However, the Brewers promptly halted that momentum with a dominant three-game sweep, outscoring the Pirates 19-5. They capped the weekend off with a 10-2 rout on Sunday despite sitting several of their best players, including Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick.
Milwaukee improved its record to an MLB-best 89-55, growing its lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central to 7.5 games. It also extended its winning streak against Pittsburgh to eight games, finishing the season series with a 10-3 record and a plus-50 run differential.
The series was a disappointing setback for the Pirates in one of their last true tests of the season. The rest of their schedule is remarkably easy with four of their final six series coming against teams with losing records, but they missed a chance to exploit a slumping Brewers team that had gone 7-10 over its last 17 games coming into the series.
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Pittsburgh also missed an opportunity to capitalize on one of its final home series of the season. The Pirates were 42-30 at PNC Park coming into the series and hadn’t been swept at home since late July.
With Pittsburgh now 25 games behind Milwaukee in the standings, the team has some work to do this offseason if it wants to contend next year. There’s a significant talent gap between the two teams that needs to be addressed, especially on offense.
In the meantime, the Pirates will try to get back on track this week on the road against the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, both of whom are also last in their respective divisions.
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