The Pirates improved to 3-3 on the early season with a series-winning victory today over the Reds by another 8-3 score. Here’s our three takeaways from the game and the start to the season.
Nice Road Start
Last season the Pirates were an abysmal 27-54 (.333 win %) on the road and that included a 2-5 start on the road last March/April. After six road games so far this season, the Pirates are .500 for a much better start. If they are to compete this season, you can’t play .333 ball on the road so that’s one area that I wanted to see them do better in and so far, so good. They opened with the Mets who have a very good lineup and they could have taken two as games two and three both went to extra innings and could have gone either way.
But even after being blanked 2-0 in the first game in Cincinnati, the bats came alive to help get this team back to 3-3 and headed home for the first homestand of the season.
Paul Skenes is Gonna Be Alright
Duh. In case you weren’t aware, Paul Skenes is still the best in the world. After his fluky outing on Opening Day where he failed to get out of the first inning, Paul did what he said he was going to do and flush it. He moved past that start and came out today and shut the Reds down for five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. Skenes now has allowed just two runs in 34.0 innings against the Reds in his career, an ERA of 0.53. He lowered his season ERA from 67.50 to 9.53. Skenes threw 77 pitches and obviously could have gone another inning or two today, but Don Kelly made the decision to pull him after the five innings.
I would have let Skenes pitch the 6th inning, but I understand why they did it. It was just his second start of the season, really first pitch wise as he only threw 37 pitches last time out, he had a weird spring bouncing between camp and the WBC with Team USA and it was a bounce back start from Opening Day. But at some point and hopefully very soon, the reins need removed to let Skenes pitch deep into games. He should be pushing 100 pitches every start. The man threw 133 innings in his rookie season then 187.2 innings last year, he should easily be over 200 this season if he’s healthy. Again, I understand why they pulled him today but when can we just let Skenes be Skenes and go deep?
The Bats Continue to Slug
After being shut out on Monday, the Pirates took it to the Reds pitchers in Great American Ballpark scoring eight runs each in back-to-back games. Yesterday it was Bryan Reynolds, Oneil Cruz and Ryan O’Hearn with home runs and Nick Gonzales with two hits. Today, O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe sat with a lefty on the mound and it was Reynolds and Cruz again with dingers and Gonzales had a double and a huge two-RBI single to give the Bucs some much needed insurance runs in the 9th inning. Think about it, the team scored eight runs again today in a game where Lowe and O’Hearn sat.
The two big hits from Gonzales earned him the new Day Game Lunch Pail Player of the Game that Cody handed out in the postgame show. Gonzales is now hitting .333/.357/.407 on the season with nine hits and five RBIs through six games. We’ve been on Cruz and Reynolds about needing to improve while most seem to forget about Gonzales but he’s still only 26 years old, has the pedigree of a top 10 pick and if he improves with the bat this season too, this offense could be really good. I said it on an earlier post game that this offense could be putting up some crooked numbers this year and if these guys are hitting along with Lowe and O’Hearn, look out.
And BRey, my goodness. In my last takeaway article two games ago, I said it was time to be concerned about Bryan Reynolds and that he needed moved down in the order. Well, he apparently took that personally. Since I wrote that, he’s gone 3-for-9 with two home runs. BRey is typically a slow starter in April, but if he starts heating up early, that could really help this lineup. And Cruz, holy smokes. He goes 2-for-5 today starting against another lefty. Homering off of another lefty and is now slashing .304/.333/.696. A .696 slugging percentage!
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