Game on: Baseball is back Musgrove looks sharp against Indians in tune-up for start on opening day
The crowd noise was fake. The seats were empty. There was no crush of people walking across the Roberto Clemente Bridge, hurrying to arrive by first pitch, and the Pirate Parrot was definitely nowhere to be found. Ditto for the sounds of vendors selling beer.
But baseball — real, live baseball — returned to the North Shore Saturday night, and the Pirates hosting the Indians for an exhibition game at PNC Park turned out to be nothing short of a glorious, needed reprieve. It made the four months without baseball seem like … well, a lot. But that’s hardly the point.
The point here was that this was fun, finally. It was familiar. Even though the Pirates were handed a 5-3 loss, the sound of Joe Musgrove’s fastball smacking Jacob Stallings’ mitt produced one of the signature sounds of summer. And then there was Derek Shelton, after a long and frustrating wait, finally getting to manage a game at PNC Park.
“That was pretty cool,” Shelton said to kick off his postgame Zoom call, wearing a T-shirt that featured a masked Pirate. “Baseball at PNC.”
Not like it had been, though, Shelton admitted. Since the Pirates started spring training 2.0, shorts and T-shirts had been the norm. They had play intrasquad games, but occasionally a team staffer would wind up in the outfield or an inning would be called after two outs because a pitcher got all of his work in.
That sort of stuff didn’t happen Saturday, as the Pirates played under the lights, with a full field of umpires, the focus turned all the way up to 10.
“The intensity and the energy has been very good,” Shelton said. “[Saturday] it was a little bit different. It was palpable.”
Musgrove said he had butterflies like any normal start. He heard the piped-in noise, too, although he said Friday that he would rather have silence. (Most others have argued for some sort of ambient noise, if for no other reason than to mask any private conversations or arguments.)
The version of Musgrove the Pirates saw was ideal. He went just three innings but looked the part of an openingday starter by allowing no runs, one hit and striking out five.
“Everything was working,” Musgrove said. “My stuff felt sharp.”
Musgrove’s slider and sinker were especially crisp. One highlight featured a terrific job of pitch-framing byStallings, who helped Musgrove freeze Indians catcher Roberto Perez looking at a sinker to start the top of the third.
Given this was Musgrove’s final start before he faces the Cardinals Friday in the opener in St. Louis, he didn’t want to fiddle around; it seemed the right-hander with six or seven pitches held little back.
“I went out there and treated this like the first game of the year,” Musgrove said. “Intensity-wise, my only goal was to go out and dominate.”
Offensively, the Pirates got two hits from Colin Moran, while Guillermo Heredia — now their starting right fielder with Gregory Polanco out with of COVID19 — had a two-run single in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The Pirates stretched their lead to 3-0 an inning later when Erik Gonzalez, making the start at shortstop, singled to score Phillip Evans.
Following Musgrove was Steven Brault, who worked two scoreless innings.
This has been a solid spring thus far for Brault, who figures to form the first half of a piggyback with right-hander Chad Kuhl. Ironically, Kuhl followed Brault and added two scoreless innings, continuing a strong night for the Pirates starting pitchers.
But as good as those three were, things went sideways in the eighth, and the Pirates handed over the lead.
Kyle Crick, who potentially could see his role increase with Keone Kela out, issued back-to-back walks to start. A single from Indians second baseman Cesar Hernandez loaded the bases before third baseman Jose Ramirez cleared them with a three-run double.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor pushed the Indians in front, 4-3, with a run-scoring double off Dovydas Neverauskas, who relieved Crick. Cleveland stretched its lead to 5-3 in the ninth inning against another one of the Pirates’ primary back-end options, Nick Burdi.
Burdi gave up a double and hit Perez before center fielder Greg Allen singled.
There were plenty of other things worth noting: Jason Martin, who might get a chance with Polanco out, doubled in the seventh inning. Oneil Cruz worked a walk in the seventh inning, while Gonzalez had two hits. The Pirates also picked up doubles from Josh Bell and Stallings.
But the biggest takeaway from this one was more the fact that live sports returned. And, after a little bit, it really did start to feel normal.
“I’ve been waiting to sit and look at that skyline and watch a game with another team,” Shelton said. “It was good to get out there for our group and play against other people and see different interactions.”