PHOENIX -- Chris Archer had the perfect built-in excuse to explain his bad performance. However, he wouldn’t use it, mainly because it wouldn't hold water anyway.
The right-hander came off the injured list before Wednesday’s game, had a shaky first inning then was chased in the fourth. It was his first start since April 26, missing three weeks with an inflamed thumb on his pitching hand.
Archer refused to say rustiness had any effect after he was tagged for seven runs (six earned) in 3 2/3 innings of an 11-1 drubbing by the Diamondbacks at Chase Field. The Pirates dropped two of three in the series and saw their record fall to 21-19 through the first quarter of the season.
“I just didn’t have control, dude,” Archer said. “Over the course of a long season, it happens. I’ve had worse games in my career.”
Indeed, he has in his eight seasons. However, what made this outing perplexing is that while Archer was bad overall, he was outstanding for a time.
He walked the bases loaded in the first inning and the Diamondbacks wound up scoring three runs despite having only one hit. He then retired 10 consecutive batters before John Ryan Murphy hit a two-out double in the fourth. Archer never got out of the inning, though, after he struck out pitching counterpart Zack Greinke for what would have been the third out. Instead, Greinke reached first on a wild pitch. Jarrod Dyson then hit a two-run single despite breaking his bat on a slider.
Eduardo Escobar followed by lining a two-run home run to right field:
Just like that, the Pirates were down 7-0 and Archer’s day was done.
“There were bookends for Chris,” Clint Hurdle said.
Archer’s outing was emblematic of his time with the Pirates since they acquired him July 31 from the Rays in a trade in which they gave up three promising young players: Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and Shane Baz.
There has been good with Archer and there has been bad. He was 1-2 with a 6.45 ERA in five starts in August. Then, in five September starts, he went 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA. This season, Archer was 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA in his first three starts, followed by going 0-3 with a 10.66 ERA in his next three.
So, what does Hurdle make of Archer and how does he think the Pirates can find a way to make the two-time All-Star more consistent?
“We’ll talk about that probably starting tomorrow, see what he feels from today, what he liked that went on today, then we’ll go from there,” Hurdle said. “I can’t take the time to answer that all right now. I want to get some feedback from the player, look at the video, hunt the sequences early, ask him what he felt early and if he did tire late. I don’t know. We’ll build it from there.”
When I asked Archer what he thought of his outing in general, he gave a very succinct answer:
It took Archer 33 pitches to get through the first inning and just 13 were strikes. Overall, he threw 44 strikes in 80 pitches, walking four and striking out five.
“I just didn’t have good command at all,” Archer said. “I don’t really know what to say other than that, except I didn’t have control.
“Fastball command was the root of it. I did throw some good off-speed pitches, but if you haven’t established yourself in the strike zone with the fastball, then the good off-speed pitches are useless.”
The Pirates knew they were taking a gamble when they traded for Archer. After going a combined 31-29 with a 3.26 ERA in 89 starts from 2013-15, he was 22-36 with a 4.10 ERA over 84 starts during his final three seasons with the Rays.
Many scouts felt his career was trending downward and, through his first 16 starts with the Pirates, Archer is 4-6 with a 4.77 ERA.
Making matters worse is that Glasnow and Meadows have excelled with the Rays. Glasnow was 6-1 with a 1.86 ERA in eight starts this season before going on the IL last week with a strained forearm. Through 24 games going into Wednesday’s play, Meadows was hitting .360/.433/.721 with eight home runs.
Wednesday, Archer showed a glimpse of being the pitcher he once was with the Rays. The problem was that it was only a glimpse.
And he put it best when he said that overall his outing was “Poor. Very, very poor.”
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE GOOD
Right-hander Chris Stratton helped save the bullpen by finishing with four mop-up innings of relief.
He gave up four runs on seven hits while striking out seven with no walks. He came on in the fifth inning and gave up a first-pitch home run to the first batter he faced, Adam Jones, but then held the Diamondbacks scoreless until they plated three runs in the eighth.
Two of those came on Blake Swihart’s inside-the-park home run. The ball bounced off the right-center field wall.
“I love Stratton’s effort today,” Hurdle said. “Street cred with the club.”
The Pirates acquired Stratton from the Angels on Saturday in a trade and he pitched one scoreless inning the next day to get credit for the win against the Cardinals at St. Louis. He made five starts and two relief appearances with the Angels, going 0-2 with an 8.59 ERA.
Stratton said he was happy to get stretched out and alleviate his fellow relievers’ workload:
THE BAD
The Pirates were shut down by Greinke, who pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings before leaving the game with abdominal tightness. He scattered four hits, struck out five and had no walks.
Greinke (6-1) is 5-1 with a 1.79 ERA in his past six starts against the Pirates.
"Greinke’s been tough on us, man," Hurdle said. "He’s cool, calm, collected, calculating. Fastball location. The changeup was devastating for us today. At the end of the day, now we’ll move on."
The Pirates avoided being shut out when Melky Cabrera hit an RBI single off Yoan Lopez with two outs in the the ninth.
THE OTHER SIDE
Greinke is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Friday after the Diamondbacks' off day Thursday. He did not seem too concerned about the injury.
"I just knew something was wrong and didn't want to take the chance of hurting it more," Greinke told reporters. "At first I thought it was an oblique thing, but it seems to be in a different spot."
Losing Greinke would be a major blow to the Diamondbacks. He has a 2.78 ERA in 10 starts with 62 strikeouts and eight walks.
THE DATA
• Josh Bell extended his career-high hitting streak to 15 games by going 2 for 4 with a double. During the streak, he is batting .426 (26-for-61) with eight doubles, six home runs and 21 RBIs. It is the longest streak by a Pirates player since Starling Marte hit in 17 in a row in 2016.
• Marte's single in the fourth inning ran his hitting streak to 10 games. He is 18-for-46 (.391) in that span.
• Cabrera is 29-for-67 (.433) in 16 career games at Chase Field.
• The Pirates are two games over .500 despite being outscored by 47 runs this season (195-148).
• The Diamondbacks won the season series 6-1, outscoring the Pirates 52-17. The Pirates have lost 10 of their last 11 games against the Diamondbacks and 14 of their last 16.
THE INJURIES
• Jung Ho Kang, third baseman, is on the 10-day IL with a strained left side.
• Corey Dickerson, outfielder, is on the 10-day IL with a strained right shoulder.
• Keone Kela, right-hander, is on the 10-day IL with right shoulder inflammation.
• Lonnie Chisenhall, outfielder, is on the 10-day IL with a broken right hand. He is on a rehab assignment with Class AAA Indianapolis.
• Jacob Stallings, catcher, is on the 10-day IL with a cervical neck strain. He's on a rehab assignment with Indianapolis.
• Jameson Taillon, right-hander, is on the 60-day IL with a strained right forearm flexor tendon.
• Erik Gonzalez, shortstop, is on the 60-day IL with a fractured right clavicle.
• Nick Burdi, relief pitcher, is on the 60-day IL with right elbow/biceps pain caused by a nerve problem.
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates open a four-game series against the Padres at 10:10 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday in San Diego. Trevor Williams (2-1, 3.40) will start against left-hander Eric Lauer (2-4, 5.75). I will have the coverage.
THE COVERAGE
All of our expanded baseball coverage, including Mound Visit by Jason Rollison, Indy Watch by Matt Welch and Altoona Watch by Jarrod Prugar, can be found on our team page.
