The Pirates Wasted All Their Hits In The First Game

8-15-2021 By Craig W. Toth (aka @bucsbasement on Twitter)

Obviously, I am totally joking, however, the two games on Saturday couldn’t have been any more different for the Pittsburgh Pirates hitters. Sure, they did a lot of damage in the beginning of the first contest with infield hits and force outs, but eventually the bats really got going in their 14-4 pounding of the Brew Crew. It was something that was really nice to see for a bunch of guys that only managed three hits in their first two games against the Cardinals earlier in the week. Unfortunately, for Pittsburgh it was much of the same on Saturday night as Brad Boxberger and company spread out four hits, struck out eight and walk only one Pirates hitter in the shortened seven inning game.

On the mound for the Pirates, Mitch Keller lasted just north of four innings; allowing two runs on nine hits. It wasn’t a great outing, but it sure wasn’t the reason the Pirates lost to the Brewers 4-0.

News and Notes

• Last season, in spite of his offense struggles, Bryan Reynolds was near the top of the leaderboard in outfield assists with five; which was extremely nice to see because up to that point his defense, and especially his arm was not something that was talked about very much. On Saturday night he reminded Willy Adames why it isn’t the best idea to run on him.

• After his quadruple double, Honus Wagner like performance in the first game of the split doubleheader, Kevin Newman collected another hit in the nightcap. Over his last 30 games, and 109 at bats, Newman is batting .275. This won’t do much to improve upon the abysmal start he had to the season as his slash line now sits at .227/.264/.303. However, if this continues, he will surely make the decision a little bit more difficult for the Pirates Chris upcoming off-season.
• Chris Stratton, who was a potential trade deadline candidate for Pittsburgh, has a 15.63 ERA in his last seven appearances and a 7.80 in his last 15. For as good as he was in April and June, he has been equally as bad since the middle of July to now.
• Shea Spitzbarth was called up to be the 27th man on the roster for yesterday’s doubleheader. His one bad pitch of the evening was deposited into the left field bleachers by Avisail Garcia.
• Recently Acquired Dillion Peters (aka Dillypicklez) is set to make his Pirates debut today. In his career Peters has a 5.83 ERA and a 1.613 WHIP across 31 appearances, 24 of them in the starting role. In his lone outing for the Angels this year he lasted 1.2 innings, while 3 runs on 3 hits-two homers.

The Buccos and the Brew Crew’s rubber match is set 1:05 PM EST at PNC Park. This will be the last matchup between these two ball clubs on the season.