The Pirates responded Sunday afternoon in Toronto with three home runs and Mitch Keller‘s strong six-inning start to roll to a 4-1 win to avoid the sweep against the Blue Jays. Spencer Horwitz, Oneil Cruz and Esmerlyn Valdez all homered in this one as Valdez’s two-run blast was his first MLB hit and home run. Tyler and Doug broke this win down in the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros. You can watch/listen here:
Here’s my 3 takeaways from this dub…
I’m So Glad the Pirates Didn’t Trade Mitch Keller
Mitch Keller isn’t the best pitcher in MLB, but he is as solid as they come. And so far this season it seems like he’s always there when the Pirates need him most. This wasn’t a must win…it’s still May, but being swept to the Blue Jays and dropping below .500 would have been a gut punch for this team. Paul Skenes failed to turn the ship around Saturday and then here comes First Half Mitch to shut the Blue Jays down and pitch the Pirates back into the win column. The Pirates have needed Mitch badly this season and holding onto him this past offseason was a winning move.
Keller goes six innings of one run ball with five strikeouts. He struggled with control a bit in this one with three walks and then hitting Vladimir Guerrero in the elbow with a pitch that Vlad left the game immediately after, but only four hits allowed and just the one run. This was Keller’s 7th quality start in 11 starts this season and his ERA lowers to 3.64. I said this before and I’ll say it again—one of the biggest x-factors to how this season is going to go is if Keller can find more consistency in the second half and pitch like this for a full season, I think the Pirates will be in great shape come September.
THE MAGICIAN
Esmerlyn Valdez was 0-for-7 coming into his third at-bat Sunday against reliever Chase Lee. Valdez belted an 0-1 sweeper from Lee opposite field 345 ft that snuck in the foul pole for his first MLB hit and home run. It wasn’t some tape measure statcast home run. Exit velo 94.3 and went 345 ft (out of 23/30 ballparks including PNC), but it showed the power he possesses with opposite field power. He got the silent treatment in the dugout and he was all smiles after hitting that. That has to feel good to get that off his shoulders and hopefully he can relax and settle in at home this week for a big 7-game homestand coming up.
I hope we see a lot of Valdez and Garcia this upcoming week at home and hopefully their power will shine through and help this team stack some wins coming up.
Oneil Cruz HR a Relief
Oneil Cruz has been in a bit of a rut lately similar to last season when he had his hot start and then fell off a cliff. We don’t need Cruz repeating that at all. Sunday, he started at DH, batted 5th and came out and blasted a solo home run to right field in his first at-bat of the game in the second inning. It was 105 off the bat and traveled 415 ft for his 11th home run of the season. He had 20 home runs last season, but hit 16 of them in the first half.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Cruz right now, but seeing him blast a home run was a relief that he’s not completely lost up there like he’s been. The Pirates are going to go as Cruz goes it seems. When this lineup goes into a funk, it needs Cruz to be the Oneil Cruz we saw in April and the first part of last season. He’s taken immense strides against lefties this year at the plate, now we need him to be more consistent (sort of like with Mitch) as the season continues on. If that means giving him some extra rest from time to time or DH’ing him to give him some time off from the field, do it. The Pirates need Oneil Cruz to be the best version of himself.
Leave a Reply