5-6-23 – By Craig W. Toth – @BucsBasement on Twitter
As well as the Pirates were hitting, pitching and fielding over the first month of the season, it’s hard to believe that things have turned so quickly. Sure you had a couple of positive outings from Mitch Keller and Roansy Contreras during the Rays series; but over the past week this has looked like a completely different team.
Some may point to the level of competition as the reason for this, however, it’s not like the Blue Jays were lighting the world on fire when they came to PNC Park for this weekend series; riding a 5 game losing streak after being swept out of Boston.
Still, they have looked like the 1927 Yankees over these past two contests in Pittsburgh; blanking your Pirates 5-0 Friday night, and 8-2 this evening; which tends to happen when you are down 7-0 after the first three innings.
News & Notes
- Johan Oviedo has allowed 17 earned runs over his last 12.2 innings-across 3 starts. During this time he has also walked 7 and struck out 8; far removed from his 10 strikeout, 1 earned run and 1 walk performance in St. Louis a little over three week ago.
- Bryan Reynolds now has an 11 game hitting streak. He has hit .400 with 10 doubles and a 189 wRC+ in this stretch. Although, he has not had a homer since 4/7.
- Prior to the game Derek Shelton announced that both Andrew McCutchen and Ji-hwan Bae are working their way back from dueling ankle injuries.
- Jack Suwinski broke out of his 0 for 17 streak with one of his signature Clemente Wall homers.
- The Pirates current losing streak has now reached 6 games; yet, they are 6 games over .500.
The Pirates look to right the ship tomorrow as Roansy Contreras (3-2/4.09 ERA/1.42 WHIP) toes the rubber against lefty Yusei Kukuchi (4-0/4.02 ERA/1.24 WHIP) for Toronto.
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