6-24-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
It was the 8th inning.
Pirates were trailing 1-0 and it felt more like 14-0.
Luis Ortiz had done well to induce well timed double plays and had already shoved for 7 innings against a Miami team that had been hitting the ball all over the park.
Alas the Pirates had already just wrapped up wasting a fantastic start by Mitch Keller and seemed poised to do the same to Ortiz.
Enter Henry Davis, and folks, he didn’t even have a hit or score in this sequence, but something felt, I don’t know, different.
Leading off the inning, Henry who already owned one of the 2 hits against Marlin’s starter Jesus Luzardo worked a walk, it drove Luzardo from the game and more importantly it set Davis off on an effort to wake up the Pirates dugout.
He walked and on his way he screamed into the dugout. Pumped his fists and clapped on his way down to first.
A new pitcher and a couple pitches later he’d steal second, and again, pop right up, turn to the dugout and give them some noise.
Again, it didn’t result in a run, didn’t even result in anyone else taking a good at bat that inning to be honest, but it did something to that dugout having someone who is all of 5 MLB games old actively showing how very much he hates losing, show how very much he’s not going to allow this team to mope away the season.
In the top of the 9th Derek Shelton pinch hit Josh Palacios against a lefty and he fought to work a soft serve single leading off the 9th against closer A.J. Puk.
Andrew McCutchen had an infield single, Connor Joe drove in Palacios on a ground ball to tie it.
Does this look like a dugout that just struggled to score a tying run at the tail end of a 10 game losing streak?
Maybe, but to me it looks like a dugout that was embarrassed into waking up by a rookie.
Carlos Santana drove in the go ahead,
Davis again singled to move him over and ultimately set up Marcano for driving in the 3rd run of the game before David Bednar closed the door with a rare save opportunity.
Maybe we’ll even realize we don’t have to defensively sub for our 1:1….
Pirates win 3-1 as they flipped the script on the Marlins from the series opener.
Back at it today at 4:05.
News & Notes
- Nick Gonzales the Pirates top pick in 2020, and Ben Cherington’s first draft selection as the Pirates GM debuted in this game. He went 0-3 and honestly, looked overmatched. Luzardo is a great pitcher so that’s not entirely surprising and Nick as he’s progressed has been a notoriously slow starter upon promotion. Made some nice plays in the field, let’s see what he does with more opportunity.
- Luis Ortiz sparkled in this one but it wasn’t without some luck, none bigger than his bases loaded double play in the first inning, this game had a chance to get really ugly, really early and with the bullpen being what it is, thank goodness Ortiz turned it around.
- In the month of June, Rodolfo Castro has batted .182 with a .473 OPS, had another start at SS last night, and had another error. Considering the way they hide him from right handed pitching, these are simply alarming numbers. Gonzales will have every opportunity to take a position if he does much of anything.
- Austin Hedges has been pinch hit for quite often late in games recently. I don’t have a single problem with that, in fact, I’m happy to see they’ve done it as early as the 6th. That said, it’s funny how Derek Shelton empties his bench with defensive subs late when they’re leading, yet happily removes his “defensively excellent” catcher.
- The Pirates are now in 4th place in the NL Central, 5.5 games back of the front running Cincinnati Reds. The Reds are playing Atlanta their only real competition for hottest team in the NL at the moment. The Reds are on a 12 game winning streak.
- Travis Williams spoke to the Apple TV team last night before the game and told them all he wants is for this team to make a push and have the team add at the deadline. It’s easy to say as your team is 5 games under in late June, but it’s good to hear from any official, well, officially.
- The AL Central is officially the worst division in baseball as we sit here. The division leader (Twins) is only a game over .500 and of course, everyone else is under.
Steel City Pirates 
Pirates WILL get better..I believe our offense will hold it own but we have to make our pitching staff stronger.. every team goes thru bad stretches..it’s a long season..to long as far as I’m concerned… there IS promise on this team as long as they don’t get stupid and give decent players away
LikeLiked by 1 person