Bucs' post-break power outage concerning trend 

PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates bashed their way into the All-Star break, batting .300 with a .502 slugging percentage and clubbing 43 home runs in their final 33 games of the first half. But their power has gone out at an inopportune time.

Starling Marte continued his hot start to the second half by hitting a three-run homer for the Pirates in the first inning, but that was all the offense they could muster in a 4-3 loss to the Cardinals on Tuesday night at PNC Park.

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The Bucs have only hit seven home runs in 11 games since the break, and they have lost nine of those games. They fell to eight games below .500, matching their lowest point of the season.

“I think we’ve got plenty of confidence about going out there and getting it done,” third baseman Colin Moran said. “It happens over the course of a season. You’ve just got to get better.”

Starter Chris Archer gave up four runs on seven hits, including two homers, and two walks in six innings. The Cards didn’t have to scrap for runs. They tied the game with one swing by Paul Goldschmidt and took the lead with another by Jose Martinez.

Still, the Pirates remained within striking distance and had an ideal opportunity to pull ahead in the fifth. Pittsburgh loaded the bases on a single and two walks with nobody out and the middle of the order due up. All the Bucs needed was one good swing.

Josh Bell, who hit two balls hard in his first two at-bats, went down swinging on three pitches. Then Moran hit into an inning-ending double play.

“I was looking for a pitch to hit and got one,” Moran said. “Just hit it right at a guy.”

With the bases loaded and nobody out, the Pirates came up empty. They didn’t put another man on base the rest of the night.

“It’s an opportunity to do something special and significant, and it got away from us,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve had a little bit of that going on in the second half, more so than we had maybe all the way back to April. It’s the guys that you want up at the plate in the second half. It’s been guys you want at the plate.

“Throw something in the gap there, you pick your starting pitcher up. The effort is there. The execution of the at-bat, that’s something that’s getting away from us a little bit.”

It’s a troublesome trend for a team that hasn’t been able to lean on the long ball lately. When they’re not blasting balls over the fence, the Bucs must piece together rallies with a series of walks and hits. They did both for an extended stretch prior to the break, but they’ve struggled to do either while scoring only 33 runs in their last 11 games.

“When you’re not scoring runs, it looks like you’re pressing. It’s just kind of one of those ruts right now,” Moran said. “I think we can get out of it any day. Just show up tomorrow ready to go.”

Unlike Monday night, the Pirates capitalized on a first-inning opportunity against Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson. After Adam Frazier’s leadoff single and Bryan Reynolds’ walk, Marte launched a three-run homer into the bullpen. Marte’s 17th home run of the season -- and fifth since the All-Star break -- put the Bucs up, 3-0. While seemingly everyone else is slumping, the time off apparently has helped Marte.

“It’s good,” Marte said. “Rest a couple days, come back strong getting better pitches and better swings.”

The lead wouldn’t last long, however. Paul DeJong and Kolten Wong hit consecutive doubles to put the Cards on the board in the second, then Goldschmidt pulled Archer’s first-pitch fastball out to left field for a game-tying homer, his 20th of the season, in the third inning.

Archer was surprised that Goldschmidt was able to turn on the 93.7 mph fastball in on his hands. That pitch, Archer said, was exactly where he wanted it to be. So was the down-and-away slider that Martinez lined to center to get on base in front of Goldschmidt.

“For me, that was the difference in the game. If I don’t give up that two-run homer, the outlook of the game is completely different,” Archer said. “I threw those pitches right where I wanted to. Paul Goldschmidt, he’s been struggling a little, but he’s still a really good player. He got to a good heater and twisted on it.”

Martinez led off the fifth by ripping a higher-than-intended slider from Archer over the fence in right-center field. Archer has allowed 24 home runs this season, more than any other pitcher in the National League, and he’s given up multiple home runs in six of his 18 starts this year.

The Pirates have tumbled down in the standings with the Trade Deadline looming only a week away. It may be too late for them to alter the front office’s course of action on July 31, but they believe they still have another run in them -- one sparked by the dynamic lineup they saw before the break.

“Yes, we are 100 percent confident in everybody here,” Marte said. “Tomorrow’s another opportunity to come back and win the game.”