Inability to finish defensively leads to failed support of Woodford

In two of his three appearances over the last week, Jake Woodford has managed to cover multiple innings when the Pirates have needed it most. He did it without allowing an earned run in a spot start against the Astros on July 31 and came through again with 2 1/3 innings of work following a two-hour, 40-minute long weather delay in the Pirates' 6-0 loss to the Padres Tuesday at PNC Park. 

While his first performance in a Pirates uniform brought favorable results, Woodford hasn't had the best luck in regards to defensive support. And this time around, his earned-run column didn't look as squeaky clean. Woodford controlled what he was able to control in retiring seven of the first eight batters he faced before surrendering three earned runs on three hits, as his defense didn't do him any favors. Sure, there weren't three Oneil Cruz errors to cost him like they did in Houston, but three particular plays went unfinished, and Woodford paid the price. 

"He’s throwing the ball well," Derek Shelton said of Woodford, who has allowed seven runs (four earned) over 8 2/3 innings with the Pirates. "There’s nothing he could do in that situation. He’s executing pitches." 

First, there was the Jackson Merrill one-out double on a sweeper down and out of the zone from Woodford. A quality pitch that Merrill managed to hit over a leaping Rowdy Tellez at first before seeing it trickle off the tip of his glove and into right field: 

Then, there was the softly-hit single by David Peralta. Woodford threw a cutter up and in to the lefty, who sent it back up the middle past the outstretched glove of second baseman Jared Triolo. It also snuck past shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa backing up on the play, putting runners on the corners: 

"He couldn’t have thrown a better pitch to Peralta to jam him," Shelton said.

The final pitch Woodford threw before turning things over to Kyle Nicolas was an 0-1 sweeper on the inside part of the plate to Tyler Wade. He sent a ball out to shallow center field that Ji Hwan Bae approached with speed. He attempted a dive and saw the ball hit off his glove, allowing a run to score and putting an end to Woodford's night:

It wasn't an easy play for a speedster like Bae to make and the effort was certainly there, but the third of three straight game-changing mishaps disguised as hits -- ones that followed two run-scoring hits by Donovan Solano and Xander Bogaerts -- made a significant difference in a negative way behind Woodford. 

“That’s a frustrating inning because I think the ball that was hit off of Rowdy’s glove, it was a big swing and I think he thought it was hit harder than that and that’s the way he reacted," Shelton said. "Going back and watching the ball Peralta hit, I mean, Tri just missed it. It almost hit his glove. Then Bae slides for a ball and doesn’t catch it. It would have been a really nice catch if he made it. You are talking about three balls that really weren’t hit really hard that led to that inning snowballing a little bit.”

Following a lengthy weather delay in which intense rain caused a flash flood effect on the warning track, which resulted in the drainage system to be overrun by dirt flowing off the warning track, Woodford was tasked with taking over for starter Bailey Falter after he allowed two hits and struck out one over two scoreless innings. 

"It was definitely frustrating, for sure," Falter said. "I feel like we all saw this coming, but for some reason we still played on time. But that's above my pay grade. My job is to go out there and toe the rubber when I'm told, and that's exactly what we did."

Falter, who made just his second start since being activated from the injured list on July 29, said he felt really good despite a short outing in which he threw 14 of 20 pitches for strikes. 

"Just trying to be as consistent as possible right now, especially going down the stretch," Falter said. "We're all just trying to keep up the hard work and it's a grind right now. We're gonna get through it."