Today's Game: Well, so much for the "Mitch Keller takes a step forward" narrative. He was rocked for a homer and three doubles in the first inning, giving up a four-spot while burning 30 pitches and fortunate in getting two outs on at 'em ball liners. Chris Paddack spun a 1-2-3 inning. After getting two outs in the second, a single, double, two walks and wild pitch followed; a caught stealing limited the damage to two more tallies. Colin Moran and Eric Gonzalez opened with two-baggers to get a run back, then Paddack walked the bases full with one away. Shelty let Keller bat instead of...well, Kells K'ed and Adam Frazier rolled out softly, and it was 6-1. The bottom of the Padre order only managed a walk in the third, which was a runner better than Pittsburgh could do. A couple of more singles and sac fly in the fourth brought Clay Holmes to the bump and he shut the gate. Paddack cruised through the Pirates order. Clay posted another zippo in the fifth. Tony Alford singled (no, not a typo) and Fraze doubled; with two outs, San Diego gifted the Pirates a couple of runs when Tucupita Marcano dropped Bryan Reynolds fly, making it a 7-3 game.
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| Captain Redbeard's off to a good start - photo Pirates 2021 |
Luis Oviedo claimed the bump in the sixth. Two walks, a double steal and sac fly plated another Padre. Tim Hill relieved Paddack and tossed a 1-2-3 frame. Ovie spun a clean, 10-pitch seventh. Craig Stammen toed the rubber and Wilmer Difo greeted him with a knock but no more noise was forthcoming. Michael Feliz worked a quiet eighth; the Pirates got a two-out rap from Gregory Polanco. David Bednar was sent out for the ninth and stranded a leadoff double. Stammen closed the book.
Dunno if Mitch needs his teddy bear or a boot in the butt, but whether it's TLC or a challenge, he sure needs something to get him confident and on track.
Notes:
- Colin Moran had two hits today, bringing his BA to .311.
- The Pirates bench went 3-for-3 pinch hitting (Wilmer Difo, Tony Alford, Michael Perez). Alford's hit was his first of 2021, breaking an 0-for-19 opening stretch. Perez also collected his first knock of the campaign, snapping an 0-for-11 streak.
- PNC Park hosted 4,023 fans on a blustery, mid-40's day.
- The Prates split the San Diego series and finished their first homestand of the year at 4-3.
Tomorrow's Game: The Pirates embark on their campaign as Midwest road warriors, starting with a three-gamer at Milwaukee. The match starts at 8:10 and will be carried by ATT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. JT Brubaker takes on Adrian Houser.
4 comments:
San Diego has a pretty strong team these days and so a split against them is a pretty good outcome, all things considered. Re: Keller, I presume he will keep getting starts through the end of the season unless he is truly terrible, but the clock is ticking, and it is starting to tick pretty loudly. Anyone can have a bad outing, but unless he is hurt, he should be considerably better than he was today much more often than not.
Re: Redbeard, ya know, all the guy has done since coming to Pittsburgh is hit. I know he's not great defensively, but he's not terrible. And yet all he seems to get from most Pirates fans is grief. I don't get it. He's not going to Cooperstown, but he's not bad.
The fans aren't harping on Redbeard so much now that he's at first, Will - he was pretty bad with the mitt at third, but looks much more at home across the diamond. So far as the all he's done is hit, he's a corner IF with a .271 career BA, 101 RC+ and never hit over 13 HR. He did a decent job with RBI in '19 (80) and is again so far this year, so that's a saving grace. He did start behind the eight ball; the Cole trade was widely panned in Pgh and it was hard for the players to live up to the fans' expectations.
As for Keller, if body language is any indicator, to this casual blogger he needs to grow an attitude on the mound and pitch with some fire in his eyes. Half the time he looks like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
I will concede that Moran's bat has been a tad lighter than you would like for a corner infielder, but again it's not that he has been terrible. I also think there may be a bit more ceiling to his performance than we have seen thus far because don't forget, he was barely more than a rookie when he arrived in the Burgh, and of course last year was a lost season for nearly every player in the game. He should be at his peak right now, so we'll see if a couple of 20 HR / high RBI seasons are still within his capabilities. I agree that he looks better defensively at third.
As for the Cole trade overall, I dunno. Obviously no one we got back for Cole approaches him in overall talent other than perhaps Musgrove, but the only guy I didn't like at all was Jason Martin. Big Joe was fairly good overall in Pittsburgh and we traded him in for several pretty good prospects. Michael Feliz has been useful out of the 'pen if nothing spectacular, and I would use the same description for Moran. All in all I don't know that that was a bad haul, all things considered. Not great, no, but people have to temper their expectations given the current structure of the industry, seems to me. And there's the sizable asterisk of the 5 for 1 follow-on trade of Musgrove to San Diego. It wouldn't shock me if someday people are talking about that deal the same way they talk about all of the permutations that resulted from getting Brian Giles and Xavier Navy in black and gold. Just sayin'.
I meant to say, "I agree that he (Moran) looks better defensively than he did at third", sorry.
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