5-18-23 – By Craig W. Toth – @BucsBasement on Twitter
The Pirates broke out their bats for the first time since the second game of a doubleheader in Washington back on Saturday April 29th, and earned a victory for a pitcher not named Mitch Keller dating back to…well, the same game. The winning pitcher that day was Vince Velasquez; who has been on the IL for almost two weeks at this point.
As expected, Austin Hedges kicked off the scoring with a two-run, RBI double in the top of the second.
Eventually the floodgates would open in the top of the 7th, as the Pirates put for runs on the board to make it 8-0; which would be the final.
News & Notes
- Rick Hill (aka Dick Mountain) was dominant to the tune of 6IP/1H/0ER/2BB/7K on 84 pitches. He also won one of the greatest foot-races I have ever seen.
- Andrew McCutchen had a little bit of a rough day, in spite of his 3 for 5 performance; twisting his tender ankle and fouling a ball straight off his knee in separate plate appearances.
- Rodolfo Castro leapt back into the batters box, after hitting the cages pretty heavily over the past couple of weeks.
- Coming into today’s contest, Detroit starter Eduardo Rodriguez had a 1.57 ERA with a 0.79 WHIP; and had only allowed 2 runs over his last 6 starts/41.2 innings. So, it only makes sense that he gave up 4 runs on 6 hits to the struggling Pirates offense in 5 innings.
- The Pittsburgh Bullpen-Robert Stephenson, Jose Hernandez and Dauri Moreta-understood the assignment; not allowing a single hit, walking just one and striking out 7 during the final 3 innings.
- Only one player in the lineup didn’t register a hit today. Leadoff man Ke’Bryan Hayes went 0 for 5 with a strikeout. He is now batting .228 with a .618 OPS.
The Pirates have the day off tomorrow-Thursday-before returning to PNC for a three game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
For Pittsburgh, Johan Oviedo (2-3/5.14 ERA/1.64 WHIP) is set to take the mound against Zac Gallen (6-1/2.35 ERA/0.85 WHIP) Arizona.
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