The Pirates lost within the first 11 pitches Saturday against the Tigers, with Derek Holland being tagged for four home runs in that stretch in an 11-5 loss at PNC Park.
That's right. Four home runs in 11 pitches. Within a matter of minutes, the Tigers scored as many runs as the Pirates would have all afternoon.
The first was struck by Niko Goodrum, a 1-0 fastball on the inner-third:
After a Jonathan Schoop single, Miguel Cabrera was able to keep his hands inside and pull a curveball off the plate into the left field bleachers:
C.J. Cron followed with a homer as well, and after a mound visit from Oscar Marin and the rest of the infield, Jeimer Candelario took the next pitch to left.
After that, though, Holland started to find a groove. He would allow just four base runners and one run over his next four innings, providing some much needed length for an already very taxed bullpen.
He said after the game that trying to stay in as long as possible became the goal after his start.
"For me, I told myself, too, no matter what, with what was going on with the bullpen, you’ve got to go as far as you possibly can," Holland said. "I don’t care what the pitch count was. I told him, too: Extend it. I don’t care if it’s 100 pitches. Give me 150, I don’t give a s---. I gotta get out there and keep the bullpen from getting used up a little bit because we’ve been killing them a little bit."
Pitch count was not a factor when Derek Shelton sent Holland back for the sixth inning despite already throwing 102 pitches. That would end up backfiring, as Holland would allow a fifth home run and two doubles for three more earned runs.
By that point, the Pirates had pulled back to within one run, scoring two in the third inning and three in the fourth. However, after relying on them to throw seven innings Friday, Shelton did not want to go back to the bullpen yet.
"I tried to do everything I could to keep us into this," Holland said. "Those guys battled back for me. I kinda feel worthless after I get out there for the sixth and those guys made it a one-run game. I kind of blew that for us."
The manager took responsibility for the decision.
"I was just trying to get as many outs as possible and we were at the bottom of the order and it just didn't work out," Shelton said.
Holland was adamant that he wanted to try to get through the sixth, though.
"I told him, I wanted to go back out there," Holland said. "I felt like I was still strong. But unfortunately some of the things didn’t go my way. We’d be talking a little differently if I got through that sixth inning, too. The main thing was just trying to be able to stay out there, be on the attack and save this bullpen as much as we possibly could."
In the end, though, the bullpen still was asked to go three innings, with the final frame being covered by catcher John Ryan Murphy, who tossed a 1-2-3 inning.
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