Pirates Drop 6th Straight 7-3

The Bucs went down in order against Jose Berrios. Big Joe met adversity and adversity won; a walk, an error, the ump missing a third strike call, three straight raps and a sac fly made it 3-0 Twinkies in a hurry. The Pirates drew two walks with a single to juice the sacks with an out in the second; two whiffs later, all three runners were still in place. An infield single and couple of walks set up Minny with an out, and a flare to center chased in one more run before the music stopped. The Pirates got a K, single and DP in the third; the Twins finally went down quietly. Pittsburgh got a run back in the fourth when Bryan Reynolds tripled and Gregory's sac fly plated him. The Twinkies came right back. A couple of walks and a knock loaded the sacks, and in came Sam Howard. He did well enough, holding the Twin City gang to a run with a big assist by B-Rey, who tossed out a wanna-be score at home. Then the game went into a drone delay as one of the metal birds buzzed the park before it got bored and buzzed off. The Pirates got a Fraze walk and Evans single with two gone in the fifth but no runs. Nik Turley took the ball, loaded the bases on a hit and a couple more walks, and a following pair of sac flies made it 7-1.

Phil Evans is hitting .393 - photo Brian Blanco/Getty

Berrios and Dovy Neverauskas toed the slab in the sixth and spun clean frames. Caleb Thielbar got the ball in the seventh. An Erik Gonzalez bloop and Jarrod Dyson walk followed by a shot to right nicely gloved by Byron Buxton (dude covers some acreage) put Pirates on second and third with an out, but again, no cigar. Yacksel Rios got the call and it was three-up, three down for him. Thielbar had an easy time in the eighth with a walk, soft comebacker and two whiffs. Rios had just as easy an inning; a one-out walk was mopped up with a 1-4-3 DP.  Gonzo opened the ninth with a two-bagger and scored an out later on John Ryan Murphy's single, followed by a Fraze rap. Evans followed with another RBI knock and Trevor May was waved in and five pitches later, the Twinkies booked the win.

Groundhog day...

Notes:

• Eric Gonzalez and Phil Evans each had three hits; the rest of team had three total.
• Bryan Reynolds has four outfield assists, with three of the outs recorded at home, in 11 games. That's as many assists as he had all of last year in 129 games.
• Pittsburgh pitching has walked 58 batters in 97-2/3 IP, tops in MLB.
• It's a quick home and home series; the next two games will be played at PNC Park tomorrow and Thursday.
• Shelty confirmed that JT Brubaker would make his first MLB start Thursday afternoon.
• Nice piece by Jerry DiPaola of the Trib on South Park HS's Randy Dobnak, who went from watching games at TRS and PNC Park to the Twins rotation. He'll start tomorrow.
• After a week off, the Marlins were cleared to play Baltimore tonight.