Pirates' Bubba Chandler Addresses Poor Start vs. Brewers

Despite the poor result, Chandler felt great prior to his start, but that he didn't mix his pitches well enough nor get what he wanted out of his arsenal, which led to a bad outing.

“Yeah I felt great. I don’t think I did a good job of sequencing or landing stuff early," Chandler said. "When I started to do it, I just kind of felt like I got in a rhythm and was kind of just throwing. Maybe not trying to compete as hard as I can, but maybe I could’ve done something differently with the outcome. Got to get better.”

The Pirates bullpen pitched the remaining 6.1 innings of the game, with right-handed relief pitchers Colin Holderman getting four outs, Dauri Moreta throwing two scoreless innings, Yohan Ramírez giving up a run in the seventh inning, then both Isaac Mattson and Dennis Santana throwing scoreless frames in the eighth and ninth innings.

Chandler hated that his first start ended the way that it did, but even more so, that he made the bullpen pitch the majority of the game, which impacts their games going forward.

“Yeah you don’t want your first start going like that," Chandler said. "You don’t want any game going like that. Hate that I screwed up the bullpen. Try to get out there next week and learn from it. It sucks.”

Kelly stood by his rookie pitcher following the defeat and that Chandler will work with pitching coach Oscar Marin and others to get back to his best form soon enough.

“Baseball is a tough game to play in general, especially here at the major league level," Kelly said. "Just challenging the guys to always continue learning, how can you make adjustments, how can you get better? I know the competitor that Bubba is. He’s going to be back to the drawing board with Oscar and the pitching group, refining some things. He’ll be ready to go next time he’s out there.”

Chandler had a strong start with the Pirates, with a four-inning save vs. the Colorado Rockies at PNC Park on Aug. 22 and a four-inning relief appearance vs. the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Aug. 27, both scoreless outings.

He made MLB history, becoming the first pitcher to throw a scoreless four-inning save in his debut, and Pirates history, getting a save and a win in his first two appearances.

Chandler knows the pitcher he is and will work on what went wrong and how to improve over the last three weeks of the 2025 campaign.

“All you can do is flush it," Chandler said. "I’m going to go back and watch the game, watch more of my body and what I was doing, what actually happened. I’m going to learn from it. I’m going to get better. I just put our team in a horrible situation today from the get-go and it sucks.”