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.