4/26/23- By Craig W. Toth – @BucsBasement on Twitter
Last night the game turned into a slugfest. Tonight, it was a pitcher’s duel-in spite of the final score-through the first four innings as Roansy Contreras and Tony Gonsolin both put up zeros across the board; and even after that small ball ruled the day.
In spite of struggles with location at times, Contreras was able to hold the Dodgers hitless through five innings; which is no easy accomplishment.
Eventually a well placed hit by Bryan Reynolds-the man of the hour-and a check/poke swing from Andrew McCutchen would get the Pirates on the board, and in the lead to stay.
Ultimately the scoreboard would show a lopsided victory for your Pirates thanks to clutch hits by Jason Delay and Rodolfo Castro.
News & Notes
- Prior to tonight’s game there was a roster shuffle, with a question lingering about how a spot on the 40-Man would be opened. Ultimately, it was Tyler Heineman being DFA’d that made everything make sense in the end.
- Everything is official now. Beginning with the trade request, to comments about his eventual trade request and ridiculous propositions about him holding out or guarantees that he would be a distraction to start the year, Reynolds is here for the foreseeable future.
- Drew Maggi got his first Major League at bat after 13 seasons, 1155 Minor League Games and 4494 plate appearances. To me this is amazing, but to others it was about a roster spot that guarantees at most a game a week, or maybe 5 or 6 plate appearances.
- Roansy Contreras has leaned on his slider a lot; and, I mean A LOT! Of his 87 pitchers he utilized his slider an equal amount to his four-seamer; 46% of the time.
- Jason Delay has surprised in his limited usage. Across 38 plate appearances he is slashing .368/.415/.553.
- Dauri “Money” Moreta showed back up after a full week off-in a non-pressure situation, and looked pretty good in spite of the homer allowed to Freddie Freeman. Aside from this he struck out 4, and didn’t walk anyone across 2 innings.
Pittsburgh looks to take the series from Los Angeles, as Mitch Keller (2-0/3.64 ERA/1.25 WHIP) takes the bump against Julio Urias (3-2/3.33 ERA/.1.22 WHIP) for the Trolley-Dodgers.
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