The Pirates rebounded from Saturday night’s rain filled loss with a nice game from the bats and Mitch Keller to take the series against the Rays and finish the homestand 4-3.
On the NS9 Postgame show powered by Primanti’s Bros, Cody and I break down Mitch Keller‘s much needed start where he goes seven strong innings with just two runs allowed, no walks and five strikeouts to help save a bullpen that was on fumes coming into the game. Ryan and Cody also talk about the offense coming through with an early run in the first inning and then finally getting some clutch hits with runners in scoring position to take the lead in the 5th inning and hold the lead. The top of the order went 6-for-13 with Jake Mangum, Nick Gonzales and Bryan Reynolds each having two hits with four RBIs total too.
Here’s my three takeaways from this big victory…
Mitch Keller is the Man
After Saturday night’s water logged affair, the Pirates severely needed their starter to go deep and put up a strong outing. Enter Mitch Keller. Keller balled out going seven strong innings with two runs allowed, no walks and five strikeouts. Seven innings on 89 pitches to shut down the annoying Rays. Thank goodness Don Kelly finally let one of his starters pitch the 7th inning and come near that 90-pitch mark. In that 7th inning, Keller worked around a Cedric Mullins one-out double and came back to strike out Richie Palacios and Jonny DeLuca to end the inning and complete his game. Here’s Keller’s pitch mix against the Rays where he pounded the fastball 43 percent of the time.
What a performance given the situation as the bullpen came in on fumes and only a couple available pitchers in the pen. Keller’s ERA drops to 2.79 through five starts. It was also the longest outing by a starter this season for the Bucs. Keller no doubt could have went longer, but I won’t crush Don Kelly on that…at least he finally let a starter pitch deep into the game. Baby steps.
Finally Some Clutch Hits
The Pirates lineup has shown that they’ve got power this year. Spencer Horwitz hit his second homer and Nick Yorke got on the board with his first dinger of the season in this game, but the Pirates have been struggling with runners on scoring position. Just doing the things you need to do with a runner on second or third. But they finally took a page out of the Rays book and slapped a couple singles to score runs on Sunday. In the 5th inning after the Rays came through with a bloop two-out single to take the lead, Joey Bart doubled, Cook had a bunt hit and then stole second. Two on in scoring position with one out. Nick Gonzales singled to center field that dropped in for a hit to score one run and then Bryan Reynolds slapped one to left field to score Cook and Gonzales to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead. It was a huge moment and the difference in this win. That’s what the Pirates have been looking for in spots like that and Gonzales and BRey came through.
Wilber Dotel and the Bullpen
The Pirates No. 10 top prospect Wilber Dotel was called up on Sunday morning and he made his MLB debut coming in to pitch the 9th inning in a 6-2 game. Junior Caminero rudely welcomed him to the Majors with a solo home run to left field, but then Dotel settled in, got his first strikeout of Jonathan Aranda and then got the next two outs to close the door on the Rays to take the series. It’s official, Dotel is in the book.
I don’t know if Dotel is going to stick with this team this week (he’s been pitching as a starter in Indy) as they head on the road, but the middle to long relief has been holding this team back through the first 21 games of the season. Whether it’s Dotel or Hunter Barco or or Chris Devenski or Carson Fulmer or Mike Clevinger or Joe La Sorsa, someone needs to step up and take this role to help this team hold it together when the starter doesn’t go five or when the rest of the pen is taxed.
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