Today's Game: Another great start; Trent Grisham homered on Chad Kuhl's fourth pitch, then the Padres banged out a double. Two outs later, a walk and bopped batter loaded the sacks, and another free pass made it 2-0, even with plate ump Vince Carapazza calling a quite generous zone throughout the frame. He finally escaped at the cost of 37 pitches. With two away, Blake Snell gave up a knock and a walk to Bryan Reynolds and Phil Evans. A passed ball moved them up, and Jake Stalling's full-count two-bagger tied the score. Eric Gonzalez was served a down-the-middle heater on a 3-1 pitch and doubled in Jake to put the Bucs up. Adam Frazier walked and Tony Alford was nicked in the leg by an 0-2 bouncer to fill the bases again. Craig Stammen took the ball to face Chad, who bounced out some 50+ minutes after the opening toss. In the second, Kuhl walked a batter with one out, threw away a pickoff try, gave up a tag-up fly and wild-pitched the tying run home. Manny Machada beat out a dribbler with a following walk before the third out. Nabil Crismatt was tagged for a K-Man double and an out later, B-Rey singled him home. A wild pitch and two-out Jake rap added another chip to the pot, making it 5-3 good guys.
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| Kevin Newman had a pair of knocks - 2020 Gypsy Queen |
Chad stayed on in the third and walked the leadoff guy, but a comebacker DP and fly resulted in a zero. Fraze reached on an error, was bunted up and crossed the dish on Newman's two-out single. Two more walks by Kuhl and a single with two gone brought in a Padre run and Clay Holmes came on. He bopped a batter to jam the bases before recording the third out. Pittsburgh went down in order. Holmes walked the first batter in the fifth, but a 6-4-3 DP and whiff cleaned that up. Gonzalez singled to open and Fraze bunted for a hit, with E-Gon moving to third after a bad throw on the play. After an Alford K, Colin Moran grabbed a bat and singled home Gonzalez and make it 7-4. A grounder moved them up, but Difo K'ed for the fourth time; he's apparently never going to see another fastball to feast on. Sam Howard got the sixth and allowed a one-out knock and walk. A roller left runners at the corners, and Shelty waved in David Bednar, who of course walked the first Friar he saw. He then got a grounder to close it out. With one down, Crismatt bopped a batter and gave up a rap, but an E-Gon DP ended it.
An infield single and walk *sigh* put Bednar in a seventh-inning hole, and Chris Stratton was waved in. He fanned a pair and got a grounder to put a lid on the Padres. Taylor Williams was next in line and walked Fraze, then breezed through the frame. Kyle Crick climbed the slope in the eighth and his first free pass came with an out, followed by a wild pitch, beaned batter and another walk to juice the sacks. San Diego once again failed to cash in as a 4-6-3 DP dropped the curtain. Phil Evans was plunked with two outs - no surprise there - then Jake walked. E-Gon knocked in a run and the Frazier was HBP to pack the sacks before Emilio Pagan took the bump to punch out Alford (three more K; seven runners LOB). Richard Rodriguez answered the bell for the ninth, and nine pitches later it was in the books. Raise it!
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| Bryan Reynolds also had a pair of hits - 2020 Topps Inception |
Chad Kuhl went 3-2/3 IP - he walked seven, threw a wild pitch, hit a batter and misfired on a pickoff to set the tone. Pittsburgh issued 13 free passes, tossed two wild pitches and hit three batters and won, thanks to three timely GIDPs and 15 stranded Padres (they were 1-of-13 w/RISP). If ya can lose ugly games, guess karma lets ya win a couple the same way. The makeshift lineup did do its part to offset the pitching, banging out 12 hits with four walks and four bopped batters of its own with an impressive 7-for-15 w/RISP.
Notes:
- Jake Stallings had three hits, a walk and three RBI while E-Gon added another trio of raps with two RBI; each scored once. K-Man (a run and RBI) and B-Rey (two runs, one RBI) had a pair of knocks. Phil Evans scored twice while drawing a walk and bop.
- San Diego pitchers fanned eight: four were rung up by Wilmer Difo and three by Tony Alford.
- The Buccos drew 4,814 tonight.
- The Pirates showed a Joe Musgrove video tribute after San Diego batted in the first.
- Shelty took part of the blame for Luis Oviedo's shaky outing last night, citing Ovie's long layoff as he hadn't been used since April 5th. Nine man bullpens are problematic in balancing the workload, as Shelton is discovering now that his starters are getting stretched out some.
- Pittsburgh artist Jeremy Raymer will begin painting a mural of Josh Gibson on the back wall of Voodoo Brewery on Ninth Avenue in Homestead.
Tomorrow's Game: The game will start at 6:35 and be carried by AT&T SportsNet & 93. 7 The Fan. Tyler Anderson faces the man of the hour, Big Joe Musgrove.
2 comments:
Phil Evans has done nothing but hit since making it to the big leagues. I just now took a look at his minor league career, and he was nothing spectacular down on the farm. Not bad, certainly, but there was little to suggest he would hit like this if and when he made it to the majors. I hope he is not ultimately a guy who hits well until the league gets a book on him and then he comes back to Earth, though even in that scenario, I think he's at least a pretty good utilityman.
What is your read on him, Ron?
From what I've seen, Will, he's got a decent stick with just so-so power, good contact, no noticeable split, and can play corner IF/OF passably. He started hitting in AA, so I'm guessing he was a late bloomer. Right now, he's on track to be a utility man (he hasn't shown corner power with enough glove to offset that), with the understanding that 150 MLB plate appearances don't tell his tale yet. The key with him, I think, will be to see if he can be productive when he doesn't get regular at bats off the bench.
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