06/27/23 – By Ethan Smith – @mvp_Ethan on Twitter
The Pittsburgh Pirates, and their fans and readers of this exact article, have been waiting for the bats to come alive again and on Tuesday night, we finally got some offense again from the Buccos.
Pittsburgh starter Rich Hill would surrender three runs in the top of the second inning and as of late, that kind of deficit would have felt like a death sentence to the Pirates, but not tonight.
The Pirates would answer right back against San Diego, scoring three of their own in the same inning, including the first career MLB hit for 2020 first round pick Nick Gonzales, who would pick up a triple off of the right field Clemente Wall, scoring Rodolfo Castro.
Offensively though, the Pirates weren’t done. Carlos Santana and Jack Suwinski would hit back-to-back homers to extend the Pirates lead to 5-3 through the third inning.
Henry Davis would join the party with an RBI single in the fourth inning that would score Austin Hedges, extending the lead to 6-3.
Back to Rich Hill, who after surrendering those three runs in the second inning, settled in well, going six innings while allowing four earned runs and escaping a bases loaded jam in the top of the sixth.
Ji-Hwan Bae was ejected from this game by umpire Jeremie Rehak after taking a pitch inside that was called a strike. This came after the Pirates added two more runs from RBI singles by Santana and Castro, extending the lead to four runs.
Josh Palacios added a web gem to his portfolio in the seventh, going full extension alongside the left field wall to save Roansy Contreras from giving up a run.
Nick Gonzales continued his good performance on Tuesday night, hitting, well, crushing his first career MLB home run 442 feet to dead center field off the batter’s eye to continue a strong offensive evening for Pittsburgh.
Adding to the strong offense tonight as well? Beloved Austin Hedges, who reach base all four times he came to the plate with two hits and a walk.
Roansy Contreras would have a pretty good evening for himself as well as he continues to get work in the bullpen to improve, going three scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
The Pirates, debuting their City Connect jerseys, would pick up the victory in the series opener against the Padres and look to win the series tomorrow as Mitch Keller faces Blake Snell.
News & Notes
- Pirates offense finally erupts after two week slump
- Rich Hill winning line: 6.0 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
- First time the Pirates have scored four or more runs since June 14 in 10-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs
- Nick Gonzales picks up first MLB hit and first MLB HR
- Roansy Contreras pitches three scoreless innings as he continues to get back to his good pitching ways in the bullpen.
Steel City Pirates 