Mitch Keller squandered a six-run lead, but the Pirates bat continued to score as they win the second game over the Twins 10-9 for a chance to get the sweep Sunday afternoon. Nick Gonzales and Jake Mangum combined for six hits and Oneil Cruz, Spencer Horwitz and Mangum all homered as the Pirates banged out 15 hits in this one. Jim and Tyler recapped this one on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros. You can watch/listen here:
Here’s my three takeaways from this victory…
Where in the World was Carmen…Mlodzinski?
Maybe I missed what was happening here, but I thought when the decision was made to send Carmen Mlodzinski to the bullpen once Jared Jones returned that he would be used in situations EXACTLY LIKE THE ONE IN THIS GAME! After Mitch Keller was pulled after four innings of work, I was confused as to why Yohan Ramirez came into the game…then Evan Sisk…then Dennis Santana…then Mason Montgomery and well at that point, I finally figured Mlod was unavailable for some reason. Here’s the NS9 Bullpen Breakdown to show you the usage this week:
Wilber Dotel was definitely unavailable after throwing 38 pitches Friday, but Mlodzinski’s last start was Monday so he had four days of rest and this would have been his normal turn. And yet they didn’t bother to bring him in. I was under the impression that he went to the bullpen to help out in middle relief and to bridge the gap from starter to back end of the pen or even to be part of the back end of the pen, but there was no Mlodzinski in a spot where they could have used him. The Pirates took a 10-7 lead and the bullpen somehow held it together though Montgomery gave up two runs and nearly blew it. Gregory Soto had to come in for the four-out save and he got the job done. But what’s the plan here with Carmen? Is he going to piggyback Ashcraft Sunday to start and conserve some of Ashcraft’s innings? I feel like if you are going to only use Mlod to piggyback starters to save innings, it’s just not the best way to utilize him at all. This bullpen needs big time help especially in those middle innings when the game is tied or they have a small lead like this game had. We’ll see what happens in the series finale Sunday, but there’s also an off day Monday…use him!
Offense Continues to Roll
The Pirates faced a middle-of-the-road MLB starter in Bailey Ober and took him to task for 12 hits, eight runs (seven earned) and three home runs in 4.2 innings. It was nice to see the continue to hit. We’ve seen them go into cold spells against middling pitchers, but not in this game. They also added on two more runs against the Twins bullpen. Gonzo and Mangum each had three hits, Bryan Reynolds, off his walkoff HR game Friday, goes 2-for-2 with two walks and now has a cool OBP of .403. Horwitz hit his 7th home run of the season and continues to produce in that leadoff spot and Oneil Cruz hit a rocket for his 13th home run of the year as he chases Brandon Lowe for the team lead. Cruz also stole two more bases for 19 so far this season.
This team can hit a bunch of singles, but when they combine them with some of their power, look out, crooked numbers happen.
Is Second Half Mitch Keller in the Room with Us Right Now?
First half Mitch Keller is sweet, I like that dude. But including this game, Keller’s last three-of-four starts haven’t been very good. Keller gave up six runs against the Rockies at home, then four runs against the Cardinals on the road, had a good last outing in Toronto, but then was rocked for seven runs on 10 hits in this win. It drops his ERA to 4.35, which sure looks like an ERA second half Mitch would have. I’m hoping he’s not already regressing to second half Mitch, but these starts have been concerning. He was still getting some whiffs and had five strikeouts, but on the pitches that the Twins made contact, they knocked them all over the park.
Keller has to be better especially with a big lead like he was spotted in this game. My biggest x-factor to me this season would be if Keller can sustain success and have more consistency all season, that it would go a long way to the Pirates postseason chances. But the fact that he’s having these starts already in May is not a great sign. He needs to turn it around and be better. I want first half Mitch to stay with us a little longer.
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