Pittsburgh Pirates: Musgrove and Hayes Dominate the Night in a Blowout Win

Tonight we saw the Pittsburgh Pirates face off in game two against the Cleveland Indians. Last night we saw the Pittsburgh Pirates secure the worst record in MLB, almost securing the first overall pick next year. With that out of the way, the Pirates are looking to finish the 2020 season strong and force a game three rubber match.

Joe Musgrove

From jump street, it was pretty clear that Big Joe was going to have a good night. One of Joes’ biggest strengths this season was his consistency to get that first-pitch strike, and he didn’t stray from that tonight. Tonight Musgrove managed 15 first-pitch strikes as opposed to only nine first-pitch balls resulting in a 62.5% first-strike rate. Despite the first strike success rate, Musgrove worked behind the count more often than the count leverage situations. Shockingly he worked behind the count in 17 different situations as opposed to 11 count leverage situations.

Looking at the big picture, Big Joe had an excellent start, which seems to be the running theme with this Pirates club as of late. As the offseason comes closer and closer, you are left wondering if the Pirates now deal a guy like Musgrove who has been hot his last two starts. Musgroves’ final line read 7IP, 3 Hits, 10K’s, 1BB, 0ER, all on 108 pitches thrown. (Side note Musgrove retired 13 straight Indians to end his outing!)

The Bullpen

Nick Tropeano came on in the 8th inning, and in the short amount of time he’s been here, Tropeano has performed admirably. One would think that he, along with some other bullpen guys, are fighting for a 2021 roster spot. He came out and gave off a leadoff double, but other than that, he retired the next three and kept the Indians off the scoreboard.

Someone we haven’t seen in a while came on to finish this game. That man is Dovydas Neverauskas. If I’m being honest, I’m not expecting to see this man in a Pirates uniform in 2021, but hey, crazier things have happened. After giving up a leadoff hit and a two-out walk, Neverauskas finished the game off and kept the shutout for Big Joe.

The Offense

My goodness, where do I start! As you know, the Pirates offense hasn’t produced as of late other than a few key contributors. The Pirates went full exorcist mode and spewed eight runs tonight with Colin Moran leading the way with 4RBI’s. But I’m not here to talk about that or the other Pirates who drove in runs (Josh Bell 1RBI, Bryan Reynolds 2RBI’s, Jose Osuna 1RBI.) I’m here to talk about KE’BRYAN FREAKING HAYES! Good god, this kid can play.

Hayes managed to go 5-5 tonight with three doubles and making him the first Pirates rookie to go 5-5 since Neil Walker. His average after tonight got boosted up to a ridiculous .370, and lord knows I can’t wait for 2021 to watch this man contend for some serious hardware. The Pirates ended up winning the game 8-0 and shutout the tribe tonight.

Final Thoughts

• What does Musgrove offer in the trade market if the Pirates trade him this offseason?
• Ke’Bryan Hayes can just flat out play baseball
• When can we start buying Kumar jerseys?