Pittsburgh Pirates: Early Home Runs Lead to Another Win vs LAD

Following a 5-3 victory on Tuesday night the Pittsburgh Pirates are now 4-1 against the Los Angeles Dodgers this season

Baseball is a wild sport, man. Entering the season the Pittsburgh Pirates had lost 18 consecutive games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Well, this season the Pirates have turned it around and taken care of business against the Dodgers.

Despite the Dodgers having the best record in baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates are 4-1 against them on the season. This comes after a 5-3 victory on Tuesday night that improved the Pirates to 21-27 overall on the season. The team has now clinched a series victory in both series played against the Dodgers this season.

Michael Chavis returns to the lineup with a bang

Last Wednesday Michael Chavis was hit by a pitch. This led to him battling forearm discomfort that contributed to him exiting Friday’s game early, and he had not been in the starting lineup since then.

Tuesday night Chavis returned to the lineup and made an immediate impact. Facing an 0-2 count, Chavis launched a Julio Urías pitched 379 feet. Leaving his bat at a 104.5 MPH exit velocity, Chavis launched his 5th home run of the season to give the Pittsburgh Pirates an early 2-0 lead.

In his next at-bat Chavis singled. His third time to the plate he lined a Urías pitch 102.4 MPH into center field that Chris Taylor made a tremendous play on, crashing into the outfield wall to rob Chavis of a hit.

Tucupita Marcano continues to impress

Few hitters in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system got off to a better start this season than Tucupita Marcano. This factor into Marcano earning a call up to the Pirates last week. Since being promoted, all Marcano has done is impressive.

Marcano hit his first career MLB home run in Monday night’s victory. Tuesday night saw Marcano do it again when he launched a 402 foot home run off of Urías. The 2nd home run of Marcano’s MLB career gave the Pirates a 4-0 lead in the 2nd inning.

Mitch Keller battles through 5

Mitch Keller started for the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing just 2 runs in 5 innings pitched. However, this did not tell the entire tale for outing on Tuesday night.

Keller struggled with control in the outing, hitting a batter and walking 5. He also struck out 5 batters and rode a sinker in the start. Prior to the outing Keller had barely thrown a sinker before going to it 35% of the time on Tuesday night.

To Keller’s credit he was able to battle his way through 5 innings despite struggling with his control. This led to him earning a victory, and, more importantly, the Pittsburgh Pirates once again taking down the Dodgers.

Bullpen shuts it down

After Keller’s night ended the Pirate bullpen was tremendous.

Tyler Beede pitched 2/3 of an inning, striking out a pair and allowing an unearned run. Duane Underwood Jr. allowed a hit and struck out a batter in 1.1 scoreless innings of relief work out of the bullpen.

Chris Stratton allowed a walk off home run on Sunday afternoon. Stratton had a bounce back outing on Tuesday night striking out all 3 batters faced in the 8th inning. Wil Crowe then slammed the door in the 9th inning to pick up the save.

José Quintana (2.15 ERA, 3.22 FIP) is scheduled to start for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night as the team goes for a sweep. Righty Mitch White (4.60 ERA, 4.22 FIP) is slated to start for the Los Angeles Dodgers. First pitch from Dodger Stadium is scheduled for 8:10 PM ET.