7/17/23- By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on Twitter
Following another series loss – a sweep, no less – Pirates decided to make some changes [maybe they DO read our post game recaps] as they called up previously announced Quinn Priester, but also Liover Pegeuro and Endy Rodriguez.
Hosting Cleveland Guardians to start the week, Priester waited a little extra to make his debut as rain delayed the start of the game by 45 minutes. Maybe it was a good thing, as Priester set down the first nine batters he faced – 8 groundouts and a lineout – but maybe not quite good enough as after that, things quickly fell apart.
Priester learned first-hand how different it can be between pitching in the minors and pitching in the bigs as he walked lead-off man Steven Kwan to start the 4th inning and hung a 1-1 slider to Amed Rosario, who deposited it quickly into the Pirates bullpen in center field. In the 5th inning, another walk ended up scoring after Bo Naylor hit a 2-out double to the notch but the real damage was yet to come.
Sixth inning of work, third time through the order, Guardians were all over Priester. Rosario opened with a single to center, Jose Ramirez doubled off the Clemente Wall to drive him in, Josh Naylor (brother to Bo) followed with a double of his own down the first base line before Andres Gimenez put the game well out of reach.
Priester would get a ground out and a single before he was lifted. Final line: 5.1 innings, 7 hits, 7 runs, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. The first of those strikeouts came in the 5th inning as Priester K’d former Bucco Josh Bell.
Pirates continued to struggle hitting or even getting on base, finishing with just 4 hits and 3 walks. They had some bad luck early with some well-struck balls that found gloves but mostly weak ground balls and strikeouts. The Guardians opted for essentially a bullpen game. Xzavion Curry made his first start of the season after working exclusively out of the bullpen and went 3 shutout innings, allowing just a single to Andrew McCutchen and a walk to Carlos Santana. Michael Kelly relieved him, marking just his second outing for the Guardians this season and pitched 1.2 scoreless, followed by Sam Hentges, Nick Sandlin, Cody Morris and Emmanuel Clase.
Guardians continued to add-on in the 7th as Josh Naylor launched a 2-1 sinker from Yohan Ramirez into the bleachers in left-center.
Dauri Moreta took over for the 8th inning, hitting Bell, inducing foul outs by Will Brennan and Bo Naylor sandwiching a Myles Straw double, before Kwan singled to left center and drove in another one for Cleveland making it 10-0. Yerry de los Santos walked the bases loaded in the 9th before Straw hit a 2-out ground ball that Ji-man Choi was able to snag but, unfortunately, Yerry wasn’t able to cover first base in time and Cleveland scored their final run, marking the final score of 11-0.
News & Notes
- The Guardians entered the game dead last in baseball in home runs by a considerable margin and hit 3 against the Pirates.
- Jared Triolo managed to bloop a 2-out single to shallow right in the 9th to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.
- Pirates hitters struck out 12 times tonight – 6 swinging/6 looking – continuing a trend of poor offensive performances.
- Endy Rodriguez struck out three times in his debut.
- Over the past 30 days, Pirates are last in MLB in batting average (.211), slugging (.324) and OPS (.609) and tied for last in on-base percentage (.283 – tied with Kansas City Royals).
- Another game tomorrow with Mitch Keller making his first post-All Star Game start. First pitch is at 7:05PM. Let’s Go Bucs!
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