The Pirates played about as solid as a game all around you’ll see in a season Friday night with a 5-1 victory over the Rays in front of a packed crowd at PNC Park. If you missed the postgame show with Tyler and Jim, shame on you for six weeks but we have you covered, you can watch it here on YouTube:
And here are my three takeaways from this game…
This Rotation is Incredible
We knew about the potential with this rotation. Paul Skenes coming off a Rookie of the Year award and then Cy Young award in his first two seasons, steady veteran Mitch Keller and then the young guns in Braxton Ashcraft, Bubba Chandler and Carmen Mlodzinski. Sure there were red flags because three of them would likely have inning limits, three of them hadn’t really done it at a full season in the Majors before. And the depth behind them should injuries arise was light and unproven, but oh…my…goodness. It’s better than advertised and it’s happening quicker than I thought it would.
Every single night the next starter in the rotation balls out. Every single night whoever starts the game for the Bucs gives them a chance to win. It’s incredible the talent they’ve accumulated in this rotation and how quick Ashcraft and Chandler are putting it together. In this game, Bubba went six strong innings allowing just three hits, one run, one walk and struck out three. The Pirates have now played 20 games this season. Out of those 20 games, the Pirates starter has allowed zero, one or two earned runs in their start 16 times. So 80% of the time the starter allows two runs or less. That’s incredible. They’ve allowed zero runs five times and one or two runs 11 times. They’ve allowed three runs twice and five runs twice. And as far as innings, they’ve gone at least five innings or more 14 times. And every other start the starter went at least four except for Skenes on Opening Day when he went 0.2 innings which will probably never happen again in his career.
Every night these guys come out and shove and look to get better. Enjoy it folks. It sure is fun to watch.
Spencer Horwitz Owns Nick Martinez
I couldn’t believe this was real. Spencer Horwitz came into this game a career 7-for-7 against Rays starter Nick Martinez with two doubles, one HR and two walks. He was slashing an absurd 1.000/1.000/1.200 off him. In the second inning in his first at-bat, Horwitz doubled to right field to drive in Marcell Ozuna. Then in the fourth inning he singled off Martinez and in the 6th inning he singled to lead off the inning to improve to 10-for-10 against Martinez. I’ve never seen anything like this before. This pitcher seriously can’t get Spencer out! If this isn’t the definition of owning another player, I don’t know what is. Unfortunately, this is the only time the Pirates play the Rays this season so we’ll have to wait for next year to see if this wild trend continues. Dan Zangrilli with the note below on X that this is the first time in the modern era that a player went 10-for-10 against the same pitcher. Just bonkers stuff.
And don’t look now, but Spence has a .750 OPS as he’s been heating up. Ozuna as well with a 3-for-4 performance too.
This Team Feeds Off Big Crowds at PNC
Paid Attendance Friday night was announced at only 24,198 but PNC Park was rocking for this one, and this team seems to feed off of it. I’m convinced if the fans show up this summer (which I think they will) that it’ll be very difficult to defeat the Pirates at home in front of big crowds. We heard the team talk about it after the home opener that the crowd was amazing and gives them energy. Well Friday night they had it all working in front of a big crowd, and we should have another big crowd Saturday for Skenes bobblehead and the NS9 Live Tailgate! Can’t wait to see everyone at the tailgate and game Saturday!
Leave a Reply