Pittsburgh Pirates Stay Hot, Sweep Kansas City Royals

The Pittsburgh Pirates have now won five games in a row overall, and eight in a row at PNC Park

There are few teams in baseball hotter than the Pittsburgh Pirates right now. Following a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, the team has now won five games in a row and is 11-5 in September.

With Wednesday night’s victory, the Bucs swept their three-game series against the Royals and improved their overall record on the season to 77-74. The team is now just five wins away from clinching just their seventh winning season since 1979.

After having to come from behind on Monday night and not scoring until the 7th inning on Tuesday night, the Pirates quickly grabbed a lead on Wednesday night.

Corey Dickerson doubled to start the bottom of the 2nd inning, he moved to second base on a groundout by Pablo Reyes, and Colin Moran brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Moran’s sac fly gave the Bucs an early 1-0 lead.

With the game tied in the top of the 4th inning, Adam Frazier helped turn a nifty double play. With the speedy Alcides Escobar at the plate, the Royals attempted a hit and run which led to the ball being hit directly at Frazier. Frazier made a nifty pick, stayed on the bag while fielding the ball, and made a quick turn to nail the speedy Escobar.

Frazier’s big night continued in the bottom of the 5th inning when he launched a solo home run. His 9th blast of the season gave the Pirates the lead back at 2-1.

In his final home start of the 2018 season, Chris Archer turned in his finest start yet as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 7 innings pitched Archer allowed just one run, a solo home run, on six hits, a walk, and he struck out eight batters.

Throughout the night Archer had great command and was able to get control of at bats. His slider was wicked and his change up was a weapon as well. This allowed him to keep his pitch count in check as he needed just 93 pitches to get through his 7 innings of work.

Archer’s 7 innings pitched is the most he has tossed in any start as a Pirate. Wednesday night was also the first time Archer recorded an out in the 7th inning of start since May when he was still a member of the Tampa Bay Rays.

When Archer’s night ended, it was Richard Rodriguez‘s turn to pitch in the top of the 8th inning. Rodriguez would use a pair of strikeouts to work around a Kevin Newman error to pitch a scoreless 8th inning.

In the 9th inning it was Felipe Vazquez time. One night after blowing his first save since May 31st, Felipe bounced back by pitching a scoreless 9th inning. His scoreless frame closed out the 2-1 Pirate victory.

After a day off on Thursday, the Pirates welcome their divisional rival Milwaukee Brewers to PNC Park for a three-game weekend series. Ivan Nova (4.07 ERA, 4.54 FIP) will start for the Pirates on Friday night, while Jhoulys Chacin (3.54 ERA, 3.87 FIP) will get the ball for Craig Counsell and the Brewers. In their final series of the 2018 season, the Bucs will look to continue to beat up on the Crew after having won 11 of the first 16 meetings this season.