Pittsburgh Pirates: Sweep Remains Elusive in Series Victory Against the Phillies

Two outta three (strong starts) ain’t bad…. right?

Friday night Wil Crowe started for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Turning in arguably his best start as a Pirate, Crowe set the tone in a 7-0 shutout victory for the Pirates in the opening game of the weekend series.

Crowe allowed just 1 hit and walked 4 in 6 scoreless innings pitched. The righty also struck out 4 Philly batters in his outing. Following the game manager Derek Shelton told the media that pitching coach Oscar Marin wanted Crowe to work with more tempo and that he was able to do that, and with success, in his start.

Despite struggling this season (5.40 ERA, 5.63 FIP in 72.1 innings pitched) Crowe still has a chance to potentially solidify a rotation spot head into the offseason. If he can pitch well down the stretch that will happen and Friday night was the first step toward Crowe doing that.

Another young righty went for the Pirates on Saturday night as JT Brubaker toed the rubber looking for a bounce back outing. Entering his start on Saturday night Brubaker had allowed 50 earned runs on the season 20 of which had come in his previous 5 starts. Saturday night, however, Brubaker turned in a much needed bounce back start.

In 6 innings of work Brubaker allowed just 1 run on 3 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. What was best to see was that Brubaker did not allow a home run as the home run ball has been his biggest bugaboo this season, posting a 1.85 HR/9 through his 19 starts.

Despite a somewhat inflated ERA (4.49) due to that poor 5 start stretch, Brubaker has been the most consistent starting pitcher for the Pirates this season. While the organization will be watching his workload down the stretch, Brubaker will be looking to finish the season strong to end his first full MLB season on a high note as he prepares to enter the offseason with a rotation spot locked up for the first time.

Sunday afternoon was maybe the start that the Pittsburgh Pirates and their fans were most interested to see this weekend. This was due to it being the return of Mitch Keller to their starting rotation. Unfortunately for Keller and the Pirates, things continued to go poorly for the once highly touted pitching prospect.

Keller did not walk a batter in the start but that does not mean his control was good. He left far too many hittable pitches over the plate which led to him surrendering 4 runs on 8 hits in 5 innings of work. Keller struck out just a pair of Phillie batters. While he did not allow any home runs he did allow 5 doubles.

With the poor start Keller’s ERA on the season is now 7.05 to go with a 4.70 FIP and an 11.6% walk rate. Even with his struggles there is no reason for Keller to not remain in the team’s starting rotation down the stretch. It’s time for Keller to sink or swim. If he continues to sink it might be time for the Pittsburgh Pirates to consider a future without Keller.

Jacob Stallings continues to be Mr. Clutch

Few Pirate hitters have been as clutch in recent seasons as catcher Jacob Stallings has. His clutchness continued in Saturday night’s 3-2 walk off victory when Stallings drove in Bryan Reynolds from third base via a ground out with one out in the 9th inning.

“Once he (Reynolds) got to third base I felt pretty good about our chances,” Stallings told reporters after the game. Well, it comes as no surprise that Stallings liked the team’s chances as this was his fourth walk off hit this season.

Walk off hits are nothing new to Stallings, either. For his career he now has 7 walk off hits in just 214 career games. Stallings has certainly earned his reputation of being a clutch hitter since making his MLB debut.

It’s not just in walk off situations that Stallings thrives. On the season he is hitting .414 with 4 doubles, 3 home runs and 5 walks in high leverage situations. In his career he has hit .391 with 5 doubles, 3 home runs 9 walks and just 12 strikeouts in 76 plate appearances in high leverage situations.

The past three seasons Stallings has quietly emerged as one of the better catchers in baseball and his +15 Defensive Runs Saved leads all MLB catchers this season. His ability to come through in the clutch is part of this. Stallings has certainly earned the ‘Mr. Clutch’ moniker.

Let the kids play

Moving forward the Pittsburgh Pirates need to focus almost solely on 2022 and beyond. One way to do this is to let their younger players who could be part of the future play, which is something they started to do over the weekend.

Infielder Rodolfo Castro made a pair of starts at second base and one at third base in the series. He went 3-for-12 with a double in the series continuing his strong start to his MLB career as Castro owns a .667 slugging percentage, .444 isolate slugging (ISO) and a 140 wRC+ through his first 38 career plate appearances.

Utility man Hoy Park who was acquired from the New York Yankees last week for Clay Holmes was added to the active roster on Saturday. Sunday afternoon Park got the start at shortstop and collected a double.

Top relief pitching prospect Nick Mears pitched a scoreless inning in Sunday’s loss and David Bednar continues to be trusted in high leverage situations. Moving forward you would like to see the Pirates continue to use Mears, as well as giving starts to the newly acquired Bryse Wilson, who is slated to make his Pirate debut on Monday night, and Miguel Yajure once he is healthy.

Down the stretch the Pittsburgh Pirates need to be playing their young players. Castro and Park should both be in the lineup every day or close to it. Crowe, Brubaker, Wilson, and Yajure (when healthy) need to be making starts. Mears and Bednar should be given plenty of high leverage opportunities. If/when they are promoted to the Majors, Tucupita Marcano and Michael Chavis also need to finding regularly at-bats. It’s time to start to find out which players are part of the future and who may not be.