Miscues prove costly Pirates in series-opening loss to Tigers

DETROIT — Myriad ingredients have contributed to the Pirates' strong September.

Their bullpen has been among baseball's best. The offense has benefitted from having Konnor Griffin, Oneil Cruz and Ryan O'Hearn together again. Jared Jones, Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler have mostly handled their business on start days.

The Pirates also began Friday's game with the second-fewest errors in MLB this month (6).

While the Pirates nearly made an impressive, late comeback, the lack of clean baseball proved costly during an 8-7 loss to the Tigers on Friday at Comerica Park, Pittsburgh opening the final series of the season on a sour note.

Pirates pitchers walked seven, while their hitters struck out looking the same number of times. Griffin made the only official error, although two balls dropped that should have been caught.

It's not how the Pirates have played while winning six of nine on their most recent homestand and 14 of 21 this month.

"We need to play cleaner baseball," Pirates manager Don Kelly said. "We've played a lot better than that recently, and we need to tighten it up."

The Pirates (81-79) have two more chances to guarantee a winning season, and the next one — a bullpen game opposite Justin Verlander — presents some unique challenges.

After Friday's game, Kelly revealed Kirby Yates will start for the Pirates.

It'll be his first start after 517 MLB appearances across 12 seasons. Yates will become the first Pirates pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1901) to make his first MLB start after that many relief appearances.

He'll be the first Major Leaguer to do it since Cleveland's Bryan Shaw made his first start after 732 relief appearances on July 26, 2022 at Fenway Park.

"It's gonna be pretty neat, especially with the environment that’s expected," Yates said. "When Donnie told me, I got pretty nervous pretty quickly. Haven’t had these feelings in a long time. I’m excited."

Yates and the Pirates seem to be having fun with the assignment, where the 39-year-old will be the young guy on the mound. Yates said he floated to the idea to Kelly earlier this week and appreciates the opportunity.

While Verlander said he plans on pitching until his arm falls off, or something similar, Yates knows his outing will likely be capped at two innings tops. He doesn't plan on going pitch for pitch with one of the game's greats.

"I think the difference is, if I get into the third inning, my arm probably will fall off," Yates said. "He’s a little bit more experienced going deep into games. Just want to go out there and give 'em hell for as long as I can."

To the Pirates’ credit, they made this one interesting, scoring five times in the eighth to close the gap.

Nick Gonzales and Ryan O'Hearn drove in runs before Rafael Flores Jr., who homered in both of his plate appearances the last time these clubs met, delivered another lengthy homer.

After falling down in the count, 0-2, Flores got a fastball over the heart of the plate and blasted it 422 feet at 105.1 mph to center field.

"He earned that one," Kelly said.

The three-run shot created an 8-7 score, but the hole the Pirates created for themselves was simply too big.

In the second inning, Jake Mangum dove for a ball, couldn't stop it, and it turned into a triple for Spencer Torkelson. An inning later, Bubba Chandler struck out Torkelson, but a wild pitch allowed two runs to score, upping Detroit's lead to 6-2.

Oneil Cruz let a ball drop. Another went through Konnor Griffin's legs. And a pop fly found the grass behind second base.

"Not a clean game defensively," Flores said. "I’ve got to be better around the plate. Good swing, for sure. Made it a close game. But you win games with defense. Didn’t do that today. That’s part of baseball.”

The start was the shortest of the season for Chandler, who lasted just 2 2/3 innings. Chandler walked four and gave up six earned runs, tying his season-high (April 23 at Texas).

It was the opposite of how he’s looked in the second half, when Chandler has gone 5-1 with a 3.63, walking 21 and striking out 53 in 57 innings.

Chandler's velocity was down a few ticks, and the improved command he showed in the second half wasn't quite there.

"Just kind of disappointed," Chandler said. "I put together a pretty good second half, and it just kind of [tickets] me off. I don't like it. But going into the offseason with a sour taste in my mouth isn't a bad thing."

Chandler has a tendency to be hard on himself. But he finished the year healthy, had a 4.62 ERA, showed elite stuff at times and improved a bunch. Nothing to be ashamed of there.

On the positive side of things, Cruz stole a base in the second inning to ignite a rally and make a little bit of history.

That gave him 30 steals this season and cemented his second straight 20-30 season. Cruz is just the third Pirate since 1887 to produce consecutive 20-30 seasons, joining Andy Van Slyke (1987-88) and Barry Bonds (1990-92).

With two more RBIs, O'Hearn now has 76 on the season. Between him and Brandon Lowe (95), the Pirates have two left-handed-hitting teammates with 75 or more RBIs in a season for the first time since 2012 (Garrett Jones and Pedro Alvarez).

Furthermore, they’re the second pair of Pirates teammates since 1920 to each produce 75 or more RBIs in their first season with the team. The other instance occurred in 1999, with Brian Giles (115) and Ed Sprague (81).

Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.