Brandon Lowe homered for the second straight game and Mitch Keller tossed another quality start as the Pirates defeat the Diamondbacks 4-2 to win the series. Gregory Soto came on in the 9th for the second straight game to slam the door on Arizona. DiNardo and Doug recap this series win on the NS9 Postgame Show powered by Primanti’s Bros. You can watch/listen below…
Here’s our three takeaways from the Pirates 4-2 victory…
Lowe and O’Hearn Continue to Power this Team
Ben Cherington basically did everything wrong for six years, but acquiring Brandon Lowe and signing Ryan O’Hearn this offseason may have made up for all of it. Lowe and O’Hearn continue to just produce for this Pirates team. For the second straight game, Lowe belted a solo home run in his first at-bat of the game. He added two singles to finish 3-for-5 and is now slugging .573. His first inning home run was his 10th long ball which leads the Pirates currently. He’s been unreal. And then professional hitter Ryan O’Hearn came up with runners on and two outs in the 5th inning down one run and he finds a way to come through as he sneaks a hit through the right side to drive in the game-tying run. You just can’t say enough about how these two hitters have changed the makeup of this lineup. It’s a completely different that can do multiple things and they did both Thursday afternoon—hit home runs, but also drove in some runs on singles and came through with runners in scoring position which was something this offense was struggling with the past three games.
New Closer or Are We Still Playing the Matchups?
Don Kelly was non-commital during spring training about naming a closer and hinted toward they would be playing the matchups. And so far so good. With a back end of a bullpen like Isaac Mattson, Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana, you can choose your spots and play the matchups with lefties up one inning and maybe go to Soto. Maybe you need a groundball and can go to Santana which is exactly what Kelly did in this game and it worked as Santana relieved Mitch Keller in the 7th inning with one on and got a ground ball double play. After Montgomery and Mattson worked the 8th inning, Gregory Soto then came on for his second straight save.
I’m wondering if Soto has basically taken over as closer at this point. He’s been really good. This was his NL-leading 19th game of the season and he picked up his third save, lowered the ERA to 1.42 and is striking out 12 per nine. Not too shabby. For the Pirates to compete this season, they need all three to be good and I like playing the matchups but it seems like the past week and this series, Kelly is leaning a lot more on Soto to where he may just be his guy for the 9th now. I’m not ready to say that for sure like Kelly wasn’t in spring training, but something to keep an eye on. For what it’s worth, I hope he continues to play the matchups on a game-by-game basis. Keep teams on their toes as they don’t know who’s coming out next to pitch.
Mattson Striking Out Arenado was a Huge Spot
Kelly went to Mason Montgomery in the 8th inning and he got two outs, but also put two on with a hit and a walk. Montgomery was pulled and in came Isaac Mattson to face Nolan Arenado. Mattson was coming off his worst outing of probably his career when he gave up five runs in 0.2 innings against the Cardinals. Kelly didn’t hesitate going to him and it worked out. Arenado is certainly not the same hitter he was during his prime, but he’s no slouch either. Mattson went right after him. He threw him four straight fastballs to get the count to 1-2, he threw a curveball out of the zone that Arenado laid off to make it 2-2 and then Mattson came back with a fastball out of the zone and got Arenado to chase for strike three. End of inning as the threat was averted. Just a huge at-bat that got the Pirates out of the jam and allowed Soto to start the 9th clean and shut the door on the Diamondbacks for the second straight game. And a huge bounce back outing for Mattson.
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