Pittsburgh Pirates: Bullpen Leads the Way to a 4-3 Victory in Chicago

Thursday night at Wrigley Field the Pittsburgh Pirates overcame an early deficit and rode a terrific night from the bullpen in a 4-3 victory over the Cubs

Never count out the Battlin’ Buccos of 2022. Thursday nigh the Pittsburgh Pirates overcame an early 3-0 deficit to rally and defeat the Chicago Cubs 4-3. With the victory the Pirates are now 6-7 on the season.

This was already the 4th victory of the season for the Pirates when they had previously trailed by at least 3 runs. That is the most victories when trailing by 3+ runs in the majors so far this season. Additionally, the Pirates have had to overcome a deficit in all 6 of their victories.

For the way this team battles and never quits the coaching staff and front office both deserve a ton of credit for the culture that has been cultivated. We saw it at times the last two seasons, and this season it has been at the forefront.

Another poor start by Bryse Wilson

Thursday night Bryse Wilson made his third start of the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Much of what plagued him in his first two starts continued as a combination of poor command, he did not miss enough bats, and allowing too much hard contact led to another poor start by Wilson.

Wilson found himself in the soup from the get go. Four batters into the game a base hit and two walks led to the Cubs having the bases loaded with one out. Wilson then walked in a run, before allowing a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 Cubs after the 1st inning.

After allowing another run in the 2nd inning, Wilson managed to labor his way through the 3rd inning before his day came to an end. Wilson wound up allowing 3 runs on 3 hits, 4 walks and a pair of strikeouts in 3 innings pitched.

Wilson threw just 58% of his pitches for strikes while generating just two swings-and-misses. Cub hitters put nine balls into play off of Wilson. Three of the six had an exit velocity of 99.6 MPH or higher, while three more had an exit velocity of at least 92.9 MPH. Obviously changes will not be made to the starting rotation yet, but if Wilson does not get things turned around and soon he could find himself replaced by Roansy Contreras or Miguel Yajure by mid-May, potentially sooner if it’s Yajure.

Daniel Vogelbach continues to impress

Daniel Vogelbach has been one of the team’s best hitters this season. Thursday night his strong start to the season continued. This included Vogelbach launching a 2-run home run in the 3rd inning, his 3rd home run of the season.

The Pirate lead off hitter also drew a walk as part of a 2-run 5th inning. Vogelbach would later come around to score as the Pittsburgh Pirates took their first lead of the night. On the season Vogelbach is hitting for a .324/.405/.595 slash line to go with a 183 wRC+. Through his first 42 plate appearances of the season he has excelled as the team’s leadoff man. Vogelbach’s contract includes a club option for next season, which is a great thing because the more Vogey the better.

5th inning rally enough for the Pirates

With one out in the 5th inning Hoy Park doubled. This was followed by Vogelbach’s walk. After Bryan Reynolds struck out looking, the Cubs issued the ole unintentional intentional walk to Ke’Bryan Hayes.

With the bases loaded and two outs the struggling Yoshi Tsutsugo stepped to the plate. Prior to this at-bat Tsutsugo was 3 for his last 30 with 13 strikeouts. He was also still searching for his first extra base hit of the season.

Tsutsugo was able to get a much needed big hit as he drove a ball to left field. This went has a double, his first extra base hit of the season, and drove in a pair of runs. The Tsutsugo double gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 4-3 lead and it proved to be, by far, the biggest hit of the game.

Reliever Wil Crowe… dominant

Yeah… it’s safe to say Wil Crowe has found new home. It’s not just the success that Crowe has found as a reliever, but it is also his presence on the mound. As a reliever Crowe attacks and looks much more confident on the mound. Hell, he a threw a 2-0 right-on-right changeup that he placed perfectly for a strike to get back into an at-bat. This is something that never would have been seen last season. Crowe almost has a Max Scherzer-esq stomp around the mound, while giving off the vibe of being in total and complete control.

Crowe’s success out of the bullpen continued on Thursday night. He allowed a hit, did not walk a batter and struck out 5 in 2.1 scoreless innings pitched. On the season Crowe has allowed just 4 hits, while walking 4 and striking out 15 in 12 scoreless innings pitched.

Following this outing Crowe now has the most innings pitched in baseball this season for a pitcher with an ERA of 0.00. Crowe has undoubtedly found a new home in the bullpen. His stuff plays up, he’s more aggressive and he looks more confident than ever. Do not fix what isn’t broken, Pirates, and leave Crowe in the bullpen moving forward.

Oh, do not overlook Dillon Peters either. The lefty was summoned from the bullpen by Derek Shelton with one out in the 6th inning and he proceeded to retire the two batters he faced, keeping the score at 4-3 Pirates.

Peters has now walked 4 batters and struck out 6 in 7.2 scoreless, hitless innings of relief. On the season Peters has now aced 25 batters without allowing a hit which is the longest such streak for a Pirate pitcher since 1974.

More excellent bullpen management by Derek Shelton

One of the biggest knocks on Derek Shelton in his first two seasons as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates has been his management of the bullpen. To his credit he has done a complete 180 thus far this season with bullpen management. That continued in Thursday night’s victory.

The Crowe and Peters moves worked brilliantly. Shelton then went to Heath Hembree who retired two of the three batters he faced in the 7th inning. With Seiya Suzuki coming to the plate as the tying run, Shelton went to the team’s best reliever in David Bednar. Facing the reigning NL Player of the Week who entered the game with an OPS over 1.400, Bednar blew Suzuki away with three fastballs to strike him out to end the inning.

After Bednar pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning, Chris Stratton did the same in the 9th to slam the door shut on the Cubs. Shelton going to Bednar when he did was 100% the correct move and it was one that paid off. Too many times managers are married to the god forsaken ‘save’ and will not go to their best reliever in the game’s highest leverage situation as a result. Credit Shelton who has now ignored the ‘save’ and gone to Bednar in the 7th inning twice in the last week to help put a victory on ice.

Game two of this four-game series is scheduled for 2:20 PM ET on Friday afternoon. In a rematch of the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener from last Tuesday it is scheduled to be a battle of lefties between José Quintana (3.86 ERA, 5.00 FIP) and Drew Smyly (0.00 ERA, 2.35 FIP). The game, however, is weather permitting as the forecast in Chicago calls for thundershowers on Friday.