8/6/23- By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on Twitter
Following a straight-up drubbing on Thursday, the Pirates put together three straight competitive games, culminating in a 4-1 victory today to split the series against the Brewers.
After struggling through the first two innings where Brewers’ starter Brandon Woodruff struck out 5 of the first 6 batters, Bucs led off consecutive innings with a bang as Endy Rodriguez hit his second home run of the season to give a 1-0 lead. Connor Joe struck a hanging slider to left for a 2-0 lead in the 4th.
Johan Oviedo posted his third straight quality start with 7 shutout innings of work, allowing just 2 hits with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts. He was working all of his pitches, reaching up to 97 on his fastball and down to 79 on his curve, creating very different looks for Brewers bats.
Woodruff only allowed 4 hits and 2 runs but was pulled after 5 innings as he made his first MLB start since April 7 following a lengthy injured list stint. Hoby Milner and Abner Uribe each pitched a clean inning of relief, but J.C. Mejia took the 8th and, after allowing a lead-off single to Endy, faced pinch-hitter Bryan Reynolds and he did this:
Colin Holderman pitched a clean 8th inning with Carmen Mlodzinski taking the 9th and managing to finish it off after some action on the bases and a rare throwing error by Ke’Bryan Hayes.
News & Notes
- Reynolds did not start today after fouling a ball off his knee in the game last night. Per GM Ben Cherington, “We don’t anticipate this being a long-term thing.” Seeing his swing on the homer, I think he’s probably ok.
- Oviedo has been on a strong stretch lately. Over the past three starts, 20 innings, 11 hits, 16 strikeouts, 8 walks and only 2 runs.
- Endy notched a 3-hit game, with 2 singles in addition to his home run. It was his first 3-hit game of his young major league career. He is the first rookie catcher for the Pirates to have 3 hits and a home run among them since Michael McKenry on July 26, 2011
- Joe’s home run had an expected batting average (per Baseball Savant) of .060 despite being a home run in 28 of 30 parks.
- The Pirates head back home tomorrow to host Spencer Strider and the Atlanta Braves. First pitch is at 7:05PM. Let’s Go Bucs!
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