Henry Davis belted a solo home run in the 7th inning to give the Pirates a 2-1 win over the Cubs on Memorial Day. Davis’ 4th home run was the difference in this one as Carmen Mlodzinski, Wilber Dotel and Gregory Soto combine to limit the Cubs to one run in a low-scoring affair. The Pirates move to 28-26 on the season and will continue their seven-game homestand. Cody and Doug recapped this win on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros. You can watch/listen here:
Here’s my three takeaways from this dub:
Wilber Dotel was the Story of this Game
I won’t lie to our followers—I was very concerned about how in the world the Pirates bullpen was going to cover four innings in a low-scoring, tight ballgame. At one point Justin Lawrence was warming up, and I was even more concerned. But Don Kelly called on Wilber Dotel and stayed with him for three huge innings and he was electric. Dotel saved the game for the Pirates in my opinion. It can’t be understated that he pitched the 6th, 7th and 8th innings and allowed just one run while striking out four and NO walks, which is huge for this bullpen. Dotel has looked so good and I love that they brought him back up to pitch out of the pen.
Dotel to the pen was move number one to help fix this bullpen. Move number two will likely be Carmen Mlodzinski to the bullpen when Jared Jones is activated. And more three and beyond comes at the deadline when you have to pick up an arm or two. Mlodzinski pitched well and got through five with just one run allowed, but I’ve said this before—I just like what he can provide for the bullpen in a multitude of different roles. I think this was his last start in the rotation for now.
Spencer Horwitz Leadoff Position
Alex Stumpf talked about the Pirates moving Spencer Horwitz up in the lineup on Monday’s episode of OffBeat, which you can listen to here:
Horwitz is now sporting at .389 on-base percentage, and the Pirates moved him up to leadoff Sunday in the finale in Toronto and Horwitz homered on the first pitch he saw for his 5th of the season. He led off again Monday and went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. Why not get that .389 OBP at the top of the lineup? I liked Oneil Cruz in the leadoff spot as well, but he’s been struggling as of late and is not as consistent in getting on base as Horwitz is. Plus, with Ryan O’Hearn out, you kinda need Cruz in the middle of the order with his power. And so far so good as Horwitz has continued to produce in the leadoff spot past two games.
In his career coming into Monday’s game, Horwitz has led off 41 times in his career and is slashing .298/.372/.466 with 6 HRs in that leadoff spot. That’s an .838 OPS. That’ll play. I would leave him in that spot for now against righties.
PLEASE STACK WINS!
This game was probably the worst pitching matchup of the Cubs series that the Pirates would have, and they got out of here with a 2-1 win. I’ve been banging the table for them to start stacking some wins at home and go from around .500 to six, seven, eight games over .500 and get ahead of some of the teams in your division finally. Every time this team takes a step forward, it always seems like they take two steps back. But this week is a big opportunity with a seven-game homestand against a division rival and then the Twins. And so far, you’re 1-0 on the homestand and 28-26 overall. Please don’t go backward. Let’s continue to pitch well, score runs and put a nice stretch of games together. I’m not saying to 7-0 this homestand (sure would be nice though), but let’s win five-of-six and start putting things together.
Monday was a nice start and win against the Cubs, who by the way have now dropped nine straight games. Let’s keep winning and pass them in the standings. Fly that L, Chicago.
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