ST. LOUIS — The final three weeks of the Pirates’ season contain objectives beyond victories and losses. They’ll get a look at Steven Brault and Tyler Glasnow in the rotation. Ditto with Dovydas Neverauskas and Edgar Santana in high-leverage relief situations. Young players like Max Moroff, Elias Diaz and Jordan Luplow can gain experience.
Another positive would have been a strong finish for Ivan Nova. An amazing start and a good first half gave way to poor production in the second. But when he returned to the rotation Sunday after skipping one start, Nova’s post-All Star break form remained.
Nova allowed five runs, including two homers, in five innings during the Pirates’ 7-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
“I think I feel as strong as I felt before they gave the break,” Nova said. “It’s a matter of location. That has been the problem. Today it shows again. It’s getting a little frustrating but you cannot let your head down. You’ve got to keep moving forward.”
The Cardinals completed a sweep and the Pirates (67-77) lost their fifth game in a row. Their opponents outscored them 24-6 in that stretch. Cardinals starter Michael Wacha shut out the Pirates for eight innings while allowing five hits and striking out seven.
When Nova (11-13) lasted only three innings in his start Aug. 30 against the Chicago Cubs, manager Clint Hurdle and pitching coach Ray Searage had seen enough. They sat him down for a start. Previous mechanical tweaks had not taken hold.
“We tried some other things, some small adjustments that really weren’t able to get him back in the zone,” Hurdle said. “It’s been more of a second-half challenge.”
Nova watched video during the 10-day break, but more than anything, the period was intended for recovery.
“We just gave him a chance to rest and probably recapture some strength,” Hurdle said. “More than anything it’s pitch execution. We dominated the bottom of the strike zone before. Balls have had a tendency to elevate on him. We’re going to try and make sure that he’s able to incorporate the changeup and the curveball from the start as well.”
Nova threw 30 pitches in the first inning, allowing a run on two hits and a walk. He rebounded against the bottom of the order in the second, but the Cardinals challenged again in the third.
A leadoff walk to Matt Carpenter had Nova out of the stretch from the start. Two batters later, Paul DeJong singled. Yadier Molina, who had an RBI single in the first, hit a three-run homer near the left-field foul pole. Molina homered in consecutive games against the Pirates.
The following inning, Randal Grichuk scraped the wall in right-center with the first pitch he saw. His 20th homer gave the Cardinals a 5-0 lead.
“Its a guy that pulls everything and the guy just hit it that way,” Nova said. “It’s crazy, you know? It’s just how the game goes.”
Through 18 first-half starts, Nova had 3.21 ERA in 1202/3 innings. He added more than three runs to that mark (6.62) in 10 second-half outings.
“There’s a couple things you hunt that were good,” Hurdle said. “He punched out seven. There was some swing-and-miss there. Seven hitters retired on three pitches or less. The inconsistent command challenged him. I saw some better sequences for sure.”
Helping Nova regain his effectiveness would make the Pirates feel better heading into the offseason. He is under contract for the next two years, at $8.5 million per year, and projects as a mainstay of their 2018 and ’19 rotations.
Nova started his 28th game Sunday to reach a $250,000 bonus in his contract. He will likely make the two more starts necessary to reach 30 starts or 190 innings (he is at 1732/3) and increase the bonus to $750,000, but there are not enough games remaining for him to start 32, or pitch 200 innings, and earn $1 million.
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: September 10, 2017, 8:50 p.m.
