4-29-23- By Craig W. Toth – @BucsBasement on Twitter
When a team is feeling it-and I mean really feeling it-the chances of slowing them down are slim to none. This evening your Pittsburgh Pirates were a runaway freight train. In their path was the unfortunate victim in the form of the Washington Nationals; led by old friend Chad Kuhl.
From the onset the Pirates seemed on the verge of breaking out, but were held to only one run scored in each of the first two innings.
Meanwhile, Our Guy Vinny’s only blemishes were a couple of singles and a pitch that got away from him; which CJ Abrams didn’t really try all that hard to avoid.
It was at this point that the Pirates bats really started to break the Nationals down, as doubles from Bryan Reynolds. Carlos Santana and Jack Suwinki doubled Pittsburgh’s lead. But, obviously there were far from finishing what they started; in a game that is the perfect example of not really being able to do anything wrong, while never underestimating what can happen.
You know like Drew Maggi’s first hit as a Major Leaguer; and his first RBI.
Followed-of course-by another hit; a double this time around.
Top it off with a grand slam by Jack Suwinski, and it just seemed too good to be true; especially since the Pirates have been on the receiving end of games like this more times than I can count over the past three seasons.
In the end, reliever Yohan Ramirez would surrender a solo shot in the bottom of the 9th. However, it didn’t even make a dent, as the Pirates absolutely steamrolled the Nationals 16-1, in their 20th victory before the month of May.
News & Notes
- Vince Velasquez now has 4 straight quality starts, and has not allowed a run since the first inning of the contest against Colorado last Tuesday-April 18th. That’s 18 innings of scoreless baseball for Our Guy Vinny. Today his final line was 6IP/5H/0ER/0BB/5K.
- Cody Bolton made his Major League Debut, striking out one and allowing just one hit over 2 innings of work.
- The recently selected Miguel Andujar continued the hot start that began earlier in the day with his second homer in as many games.
- Jack Suwinski has been absolutely on fire over the past 3 weeks; slashing .341/.446/.773 with 5 homers, a 213 wRC+ and a 17.9% BB% to 25% K-rate. Clearly all of these numbers are extremely impressive, however the balance between walks and strikeouts is the most promising to me.
- Honestly, what in the world has gotten into Jason Delay? Yes, it still only 47 plate appearances, but there’s no way anyone saw a .390 AVG and a 1.045 OPS coming from Delay.
- Carlos Santana has found the Fountain of Youth over the first month of the season. From his unexpected presence on the base paths, to his play at first base, Santana has been a spark plug for the team on the field, and in the clubhouse. Oh by the way he is also batting .281 with a .790 OPS with 2 homers and stolen bases in his first 108 plate appearances.
The Pirates go for the sweep in D.C. tomorrow at 1:35 PM. For Pittsburgh, Johan Oviedo (2-1/3.03 ERA/1.21 WHIP) takes the bump against Josiah Gray (1-4/2.93 ERA/1.34 WHIP) for the Nationals.
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