Pirates fail to deliver with runners in scoring position in shutout loss as A's sweep series

The Pittsburgh Pirates ended their West Coast trip to the Bay Area the same way they started it: by getting shut out.

The Oakland Athletics got an early lead on solo home runs from Abraham Toro and Tyler Nevin and cruised to a 4-0 win Wednesday afternoon to sweep the three-game series at Oakland Coliseum.

The Pirates (14-18) were outscored 23-8 on the road trip, losing four consecutive and five of six games. After going 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position with 10 left on base Wednesday, the Pirates finished the six-game road trip by batting .056 (2 for 36) with RISP and stranding 46 runners. Bryan Reynolds struck out with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

“The whole culmination for us this series is we didn’t get big hits when we needed to,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “It doesn’t matter who it is. We’ve got to get a big two-out hit. We had opportunities today. We had opportunities last night. And we’re not getting it right now, so we’ve just got to keep going and have a ball fall and go from there.”

The A’s relied on the deep ball early.

When Quinn Priester (0-2) left a 2-1 sinker over the middle of the plate, Toro hit a 406-foot line drive off the top of the center-field wall for his third home run to give the A’s a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

“I wanted to challenge him,” Priester said. “I challenged him, and sometimes that happens.”

It happened again with two outs in the third, when Tyler Nevin sent Priester’s 1-2 slider 384 feet to left field for his fourth homer and a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates continued their inability to manufacture runs as A’s starter Ross Stripling (1-5) allowed three hits without a walk while striking out a pair in six scoreless innings to earn his first win in 28 appearances.

With runners on first and third with two outs in the second, Jack Suwinski lined out to first. Reynolds hit a ground-rule double with two outs in the third, only for Connor Joe to fly out to center. And the Pirates came up short again in the fourth, despite two throwing errors by the A’s that twice left runners in scoring position.

Oneil Cruz singled to left, advanced to second on a groundout and to third on Stripling’s errant pickoff attempt. Despite the infield playing in, Cruz broke for home on contact on a high chopper to short by Rowdy Tellez and was thrown out easily at home.

Jared Triolo then reached on a throwing error by Nevin at third base, putting runners at second and third, but Suwinski flied out to left to end the rally.

The A’s didn’t fail to take advantage of the Pirates’ follies in the bottom of the fifth. Nevin reached when Priester and catcher Henry Davis collided while attempting to field a dribbler, with Davis knocking Priester off balance on his throw to first.

Priester accepted full blame for the play.

“I need to communicate,” Priester said. “Henry called it there. I felt like it was an easier play. Obviously, I wanted to make the play to get the out, but I didn’t communicate. I’ve got to let him know I’m getting that ball.”

Priester walked JJ Bleday on four pitches, then walked Shea Langeliers to load the bases. Priester got Toro to hit a grounder to short, but Cruz’s throw pulled Tellez off the bag and allowed Nevin to score as the A’s stretched their lead to 3-0.

“He lost his command a little bit,” Shelton said, “and was able to bounce back.”

That extended the inning by 19 pitches, however, and shortened the start to six innings for Priester, who gave up five hits and four walks with three strikeouts on 97 pitches.

The Pirates’ best scoring chance came in the seventh, when Triolo singled and Davis and Ke’Bryan Hayes drew walks to load the bases with two outs. After working a 3-0 count against Austin Adams, Reynolds went down swinging at a full-count slider low and inside.

After Joe and Andrew McCutchen drew walks in the eighth, Triolo almost loaded the bases when home plate umpire Tony Randazzo ruled he was hit by Michael Kelly’s pitch. The A’s challenged the call, which was overturned after reviews showed it hit the knob of the bat. Triolo flied out to left, extending the Pirates’ streak of going hitless with runners in scoring position to 15 at-bats.

The A’s added another run in the eighth against David Bednar. Toro drew a leadoff walk then was replaced by pinch runner Esteury Ruiz, who stole second base and scored on Kyle McCann’s single to right for a 4-0 lead.

The Pirates are in last place in the NL Central as they return for a nine-game homestand starting Friday against the Colorado Rockies at PNC Park, and Shelton was at a loss for how to end their funk.

“I don’t know. I wish I had the answer to that. If I had the answer to that, it would be a lot easier conversation,” Shelton said. “Right now, we’ve got to keep grinding and we’ve got to figure out a way to get that two-out hit. …

“We had opportunities. Some of it was because of walks, some of it was base hits and some of it was miscues by them. But it really doesn’t matter how the opportunities are created if we don’t cash in on them.”