The Pirates overcame losing Esmerlyn Valdez to injury to rally late and forced extra innings to walk off the Diamondbacks 3-2 in the first game of a massive series at PNC Park Monday night. Mitch Keller pitched into the 6th and gave up two runs in 5.1 innings as the Pirates trailed 2-1, but an RBI double by Bryan Reynolds tied the game in the 8th inning and Brandon Lowe won it on an RBI single in the 10th. Neil and Doug broke this one down on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti Bros. You can watch or listen here:
Here’s my three takeaways from this huge win…
Pitching Won the Night
I said last week on Bucco Brew that the next two starts for Mitch Keller would be huge for him because if he continued to struggle, the Pirates would need to move starting pitching up their wishlist at the deadline. Keller went out and tossed five shutout innings at Yankee Stadium and then in this game against the Diamondbacks in one of the biggest series of the season, Keller fired five scoreless innings again as the game turned into an unlikely pitching duel between Keller and Merrill Kelly. Keller ran into trouble in the 6th inning, was nickel’d and dime’d and gave up a two-run double to Max Kepler. Keller exited and Yohan Ramirez cleaned the sixth up, pitched a scoreless 7th inning and then we got scoreless innings from Ron Marinaccio and Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery, pitching his third game in four days, shut the door on the D-Backs in the top of the 10th, worked around an awful error by Nick Gonzales and stranded two runners to set the stage for the Pirates walkoff win. Anytime you get four plus innings of scoreless ball from this bullpen, you have to take advantage and the Pirates offense came through with just enough.
The rotation and bullpen has been shaky, but not in this game. Keller continued his momentum and is looking like First Half Mitch and Montgomery is a bulldog on the mound and may have just locked himself in as the Pirates new closer. The pitching got the job done in this one and was the reason the Pirates are currently tied for the third wildcard spot.
Losing the Magician Longtime Would Suck
Esmerlyn Valdez’s magical rookie season may have come to an end in this game. He was hit by a pitch in the 4th inning in his hand or maybe wrist or maybe arm and left the game. It didn’t look good at all. Valdez was visibly in a lot of pain and upset, sort of that look and body language when the player knows they broke something. Take a look here courtesy of Platinum Key:
Let’s hope that nothing is broke and he misses a couple games, but losing Valdez would be a big blow to this offense. Valdez came in to this game with a 191 OPS+ and with the injuries the Pirates already have, losing Valdez for significant time during this red hot run he’s been on would be tough. As soon as he got hit and you saw his reaction, the logical reaction from most Pirates fans was “why us?” Why do things like this happen to the Pirates franchise as soon as they start to get fun and compete? And a lot of folks on Twitter went with the “season’s over” mantra that we’ve said a bunch this year. But just like all season, the Pirates responded and somehow won this game and won it in dramatic fashion. The short term win was huge, but now we all hold our breath until we see some news on Valdez’s injury.
Lowe and BRey Came Through Big Time
The vibes were low. They were real low after Valdez’s injury and the D-Backs took a 2-0 lead in the 6th inning. The Pirates bats had just two hits off Kelly to that point until the 6th inning when they took advantage to an error by Kelly, Brandon Lowe came up and came through with an RBI infield single to score Jake Mangum. They chased Kelly from the game after a Jared Triolo walk. The bullpen got out of the inning, but it set up for the 8th inning when Lowe doubled to left and seconds after Don Kelly was tossed for arguing a check swing, Bryan Reynolds ripped a two-out double to center that scored Lowe to tie the game at 2 apiece. And then in the 10th inning after Montgomery kept the game tied, Lowe came up with one out and runners at the corners and laced a single off the first baseman’s glove that scored Billy Cook for the walkoff winner. Lowe was huge with a 3-for-5 night and two RBIs and looks like he’s come out of his mini slump with six hits in the past two games. When Lowe, Reynolds and Ryan O’Hearn are clicking, this offense is usually in good shape. Let’s hope Valdez doesn’t miss much time and Horwitz returns this week and Oneil Cruz not far behind him. I’ll leave you with Greg Brown’s call on the radio of Lowe’s walkoff winner:
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