Carmen Mlodzinski’s early-season form was sparkling entering his start Tuesday night at Globe Life Field. The Pirates right-handed pitcher was sporting a 1.77 ERA and hadn’t conceded a run during his previous two appearances, which included 11 2/3 innings of work.
Mlodzinski saw the Texas Rangers’ lineup knock the shine off his strong start, and the Pirates’ bats didn’t pick up the slack during a 5-1 loss.
Mlodzinski was chased from the game after throwing a career-high 93 pitches in 4 1/3 innings. Mlodzinski allowed six hits, walked two and conceded five earned runs. He said during the SportsNet Pittsburgh post-game show that his body didn’t feel right.
“I think it was honestly an off night,” Mlodzinski said. “I was fighting my body the whole game. I grinded through it and never gave up in a sense. I wasn’t able to execute in the fifth inning to give the team a chance to win. I’ve been around long enough to know I’m going to struggle in this game, and these games are going to happen.”
Mlodzinski finished with six strikeouts, but his stuff didn’t play the same.
“It seemed like the fastball command wasn’t as sharp,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “He got behind early. When things are tough with the fastball command, it’s tough with the other stuff.”
The fifth inning proved to be an all-around nightmare for Pittsburgh. With the Pirates trailing 2-1, Oneil Cruz hit a fly ball to left-center field that had the appearance of a go-ahead home run. Instead, Rangers center fielder Evan Carter made a leaping catch to save three runs.
“That was a heck of a catch by Carter,” Kelly said. “Oneil put a heck of a swing on that ball. He brought three runs back.”
After Carter’s catch, the Pirates had only three baserunners during the final four innings.
Kelly didn’t think Carter’s catch deflated Pittsburgh’s lineup.
“I thought we continued to have good at-bats,” Kelly said. “That was a heck of a play at that moment.”
Pittsburgh finished with six hits. Nick Gonzales and Jake Mangum led the Pirates with two hits apiece.
Texas (12-11) chased Mlodzinski from the game in the bottom of fifth.
Josh Smith opened with a double. One batter later, Ezequiel Duran doubled to left and scored Smith.
Corey Seager singled to center, bringing home Duran to stretch the lead to 4-1 and forcing Pittsburgh to head to the bullpen.
“I can say, I don’t think it was our night tonight as a team,” Mlodzinski said. “You aren’t expecting to go up and give up runs the next inning. There’s big momentum there after giving up runs after a big defensive play. The crowd was into it after a big defensive play.”
The Pirates’ luck didn’t change when Wilber Dotel came on in relief.
The first batter Dotel faced, Jake Burger, reached first base on a fielder’s choice when the ball got stuck in the webbing of Pirates’ third baseman Nick Yorke’s glove.
Had Yorke been able to get the ball free, it could have resulted in a double play. Instead, Texas would add another run when Josh Jung brought in Seager on a fielder’s choice.
Pittsburgh (13-10) fell to 5-5 on the road. The Pirates led briefly. Cruz opened the game with a single off Kumar Rocker, stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by Rangers catcher Danny Jansen.
Ryan O’Hearn singled Cruz in to put the Pirates ahead.
Texas snapped Mlodzinski’s scoreless string in the second. Joc Pederson opened with a single to right field, and Jung pushed Pederson to third with a double to center field.
Evan Carter tied the score by singling in Pederson. Smith brought Jung in with a sacrifice fly to push Texas ahead, 2-1.
Rocker earned the win for the Rangers, scattering four hits over six innings. He finished with five strikeouts.