PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) It was not a fun Friday night in Atlanta for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they gave up 20 runs on 20 hits, including seven homeruns and two grand slams in a 20-1 loss to the Braves.
Despite losing by 13 to the Cincinnati Reds twice already this season, this loss in Atlanta is the second-largest margin of loss in Pirates’ franchise history, behind a 20-0 blowout to the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010.
The Braves took at-bats in eight innings and had runs in all but one of them, when Pirates starting pitcher Tyler Anderson only gave up a double to Austin Riley.
Beyond the third inning, Pirates’ pitchers had a hard time keeping the ball in the yard.
The Pirates used four pitchers in the blowout, including a position player in Wilmer Difo, and each one to take the mound gave up at least one homerun.
Throw two grand slams in there for good measure.
Braves standout Ronald Acuna Jr started the aerial attack with his second inning grand slam to put the Braves up 5-0.
Acuna went 2-5 with a game-high five RBIs.
The Pirates used infielder Difo to pitch for the eighth inning and it went about as well as you would expect for a position player on the mound.
Difo himself gave up eight runs including one of the grand slams; His pitching stat line sits at 1.0 innings pitched with a 72.00 ERA.
The grand slam given up by Difo helped the Braves set a franchise record for most bases loaded homeruns in a single month, it was their sixth of May.
With a lot of discussion being had recently about how batters should play when a position player is on the mound, Pirates manager Derek Shelton told reporters he didn’t see any issue with the Braves swinging away on Difo.
“They have to swing,” Shelton said. “He’s going to throw it on the plate. You have to respect the game. You have to respect your at-bats. I didn’t expect them to go up there and just take. They shouldn’t do that. No one should do that. Swing the bat.”
For what it’s worth, Difo did strikeout Acuna swinging, so it wasn’t all terrible.
The Buccos were able to push a run across avoiding the shutout and tying the franchises biggest blowout ever.
It took until there were two outs in the top of the ninth inning when Will Craig singled in Erik Gonzalez to break up the Braves’ shutout.
With the loss, the Pirates drop to 18-26 on the season, good for 5th in the National League Central.