This one was the third leg of a set the Pirates never got a handle on. Pittsburgh dropped the opener 5-4 and the middle game 4-3 — both one-run losses they could point to as close calls — before Sunday turned into something uglier. LA completed the sweep, and did it without much resistance.
The Dodgers scratched across a run in the 1st, tacked on 2 more in the 4th and another in the 5th, and that was more than enough. Pittsburgh managed just 2 hits all afternoon against LA's 6, and never got a runner past second. It's the kind of line that's become a theme for this Pirates offense down the stretch — they'd been shut out multiple times since the All-Star break, and Sunday made it another one.
Snell's return from the injured list has been about as good as the Dodgers could've hoped for, and this start extended it. For Pittsburgh, the bigger story is a lineup that's gone cold at the worst time, with regulars scuffling and the injury list not helping matters. LA closes the book on this series looking like the best team in baseball; the Pirates head home with plenty to sort out before their season slips away.