Bell, Polanco homer for win
positive impression.
“He’s attacking the zone with the fastball, slider and the split,” manager Derek Shelton said of Tropeano. “That’s been the main thing. He’s come right after hitters, and he’s been effective with his offspeed stuff.”
Another terrific effort came from Geoff Hartlieb, who relieved Tropeano in the seventh with two runners on. Although Hartlieb and the Pirates fell victim to a missed call from homeplate umpire CB Bucknor, Hartlieb regrouped and struck out Justin Smoak.
( Bucknor missed Smoak’s foul tip that John Ryan Murphy caught.)
Hartlieb, who has ditched his four- seamer while steadily improving his sinker- slider combo, picked up two more strikeouts in a scoreless eighth.
Richard Rodriguez — who served up the walk- off home run Saturday to Eric Sogard — pitched a scoreless ninth.
“It was a fun one, for sure,” Hartlieb said. “We take a lot of pride in getting six [ innings] out of us.”
That the Pirates did what they did against Woodruff was notable, as he hasn’t lost at Miller Park since 2018. One important sequence came in the fifth, when Erik Gonzalez and Adam Frazier worked twoout walks, and Kevin Newman drove in the Pirates’ fourth run with a single.
It bucked a trend for Newman against the Brewers, as he began Sunday’s game hitless in 19 at- bats against them this season. ( He’s hitting .324 versus everyone else.)
“Against a guy like Woody, that’s huge,” Frazier said of the Pirates driving up Woodruff’s pitch count. “It’s not an easy thing to do. I just wanted to follow [ Gonzalez] with another tough at- bat and make it tough on [ Woodruff].”
The Pirates did that with the homers, too. Woodruff came into Sunday’s game having allowed just three over seven starts, but Polanco snapped out of an 0for- 18 funk by jumping on a 2- 2 changeup in the second inning.
Of Polanco’s nine hits this season, five have been homers.
Bell ambushed a fourseamer for his fourth homer of the season and second in as many games. It’s clear that things have slowed down for Bell, who continues to hit the ball hard. After a difficult first month, he’s starting to sync up to the fastball and hit for more power.
“It seemed like, at times, you could throw me a ball right down the middle, and I was mishitting it into the ground,” Bell said. “It doesn’t seem like that’s the case right now, so I’m just going to try to stay with where I’m at.”
Steven Brault racked up five strikeouts but had a tough time against a Brewers lineup that fouled off a lot of pitches — 15 in all. The extended at- bats drove up Brault’s pitch count, and he exited after three innings and 68 pitches.
Kyle Crick took over in the fourth, his first game action since July 27. And while he didn’t allow a run, his fastball velocity was a little down. After averaging 95.8 mph in 2018 and 95.3 mph a season ago, Crick’s four- seamer averaged just 91.1 mph Sunday.
The next few days will show whether there’s anything to be overly concerned about there, although by that time, the Pirates could look much different, depending on what Cherington decides to do.
But for now, the Pirates were plenty happy to see Bell’s mammoth swing, get a bounce- back effort from the bullpen and finally win a game at Miller Park.
“We’ve all been around it enough,” Brault said of the trade deadline. “It’s still a weird experience, but we’re kind of used to it. We’ll see what happens in the next 24 hours. Hopefully, we’ll all be Pirates two days from now.”