8-23-21 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
The Pirates bullpen has obviously undergone a nearly complete overhaul this season, but recently the Pirates moved Chad Kuhl to that role. They’ve done that to help him continue building up and haven’t defined whether this will be a permanent position for him or if they intend to give him another shot at starting next season, if they don’t move him.
Tonight, another potential bullpen arm next season started this ballgame. Wil Crowe has a good pitch mix, but his pitch counts are ballooning early and worse, the more hitters see of him, the harder they hit him. Perfect candidate for a bullpen role next season.
Tonight he pitched ok for 4 innings, but I can’t sit here and tell you it looked easy. By the fifth you could tell the wheels were coming off.
The Pirates hung in this one and it all started by limiting the damage with the glove.
Then the Bucco Speedsters stepped in again.
The Bucs had it at 5-2 and Yoshi was called upon to pinch hit.
5-3
In the Bottom of the 7th the General stepped up.
They’d work it back to 5-5 and that’s why I bring in the bullpen, because Chasen Shreve and Chad Kuhl kept the Diamondbacks where they were and allowed the comeback to happen.
Anthony Banda, who’s been solid since joining the club tossed a 0 in the 8th.
In the Bottom of the 8th Diamondbacks reliever Noe Ramirez walked the bases loaded with one out and they brought in Faria to face Ke’Bryan Hayes who at this point was 1 for 2 with a pair of walks. Great at bat by Hayes, 10 pitches and finally got a weak grounder to score the go ahead run 6-5 Buccos. Reynolds now had a chance with runners at 2nd and 3rd. He hit sharply to left but alas inning over.
We head to the 9th and the Bucs call on David Bednar, what you were expecting Oviedo?
And the Renegade landed on a save for the first time at home. Nice win.
6-5 Pirates
News & Notes
- Michael Chavis made his Pirates debut and went 0 for 4
- Yoshi hit his 3rd dinger as a Pirate, and while I still have questions about signing a pending free agent, he’d make a mighty fine DH.
- I’m not going over the whole Polanco thing again, see my Five Thoughts today if you want that, but tonight he went 0-4.
- Kevin Newman had 3 legitimate gems today at short.
Inside The Bucs Basement 