Newman breaks out in split
Pirates win, 14-4; lose nightcap, 6-0
Kevin Newman wasn’t even supposed to start the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. When the Pirates released their Game 1 lineup, it initially had Anthony Alford in left field, Hoy Park at shortstop and Newman sitting on the bench.
It was an understandable move. Newman has been solid defensively this season, leading all MLB shortstops in fielding percentage, but he also had the worst OPS among regulars — just .541 entering the day. So when Alford was a late scratch, Park replaced him and Newman was pressed into action, it hardly inspired thoughts of an offensive breakout.
But baseball can be funny like that, with the most random thing possible happening, and that’s exactly what occurred on
picture-perfect day along the Allegheny River.
Newman, who has struggled the most of any Pittsburgh player, tied the MLB record for doubles in a game with four, and the Pirates enjoyed a seasonbest offensive output, cruising to a 14-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in game 1 at PNC Park.
“Swung the bat well,” manager Derek Shelton said as the postgame music blared.“Much needed for us and him.”
The nightcap saw the run-producing spigot turn off, as the Pirates struggled to mount much of anything against Brewers pitching in a 6-0 loss. Pittsburgh tallied just four hits, including none for extra bases, as Mitch Keller dropped to 3-10 on the year. Keller went 4⅓ innings and allowed two earned runs on nine hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
How strange was what happened in the second game? The Pirates hadn’t scored an earned run off of Brett Anderson, who started the first game, in 13 innings this season. Meanwhile, Game 2 starter Aaron Ashby had logged a grand total of 6⅔ MLB innings prior to Saturday.
The Pirates rocked Anderson. Ashby dominated them. But like we learned in the first game, pretty much anything can happen in this sport, and sometimes that means a whole bunch of silence, which is what the Pirates endured.
The Pirates finished with just four hits, none for extra bases and only once had a runner on third base. After tying the MLB record with doubles in the first game, Kevin Newman went just 1 for 3 in the second one and accounted for one of the Pirates’ eight strikeouts.
Mitch Keller started and fared OK. He went 4⅓ innings and gave up two earned runs on nine hits. The line itself wasn’t ugly, although the Brewers had no problem making hard
contact against Keller, who yielded nine balls with an average exit velocity of 95 mph or more.
As for the first game, Alford showed up, said he had been experiencing back spasms and was removed from the lineup. At the same time, Newman said he was preparing the like he might be playing, figuring he would start at least one of the two games.
The run total, no surprise, represents a seasonhigh. The Pirates (42-74) pounded out 19 hits to snap an eight-game losing streak. Aside from Newman’s four doubles, Bryan Reynolds hit his 21st homer and finished with four RBIs; Park had three hits; Rodolfo Castro had a 112.5 mph double among his two hits; Ke’Bryan Hayes and Gregory Polanco also had multiple hits.
The avalanche of offense came against Brewers lefthander Anderson, who had allowed just one unearned run in two previous starts (13 innings) against the Pirates this season.
Tied at 4-4, the Pirates broke the game open with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Pinch-hitting for Bryse Wilson, John Nogowski snapped an 0-for-15 skid by ripping a line-drive single to left to give the Pirates a 5-4 lead. Hayes followed by shooting a 2-0
sinker up the middle.
Newman drove in two with his fifth-inning double, a high chopper over the head of third baseman Eduardo Escobar. Wilmer Difo singled home a run before Hayes hit into a fielder’s choice to bring in another. Reynolds kept the rally going by crushing a four-seam fastball at the bottom of the zone from Brewers reliever Miguel Sanchez.
“Obviously we were scuffling,” Newman said. “To break out and have a game like this, kind of get the energy back, that fun baseball feeling, it’s huge for us. Looking to build on that.”
It wasn’t long ago that Reynolds and Newman were thought of the same way after both shined in 2019. While Reynolds was first on the team with 4.1 bWAR, Newman was second at 3.0. They were viewed as integral parts of the Pirates’ future.
They’ve followed divergent paths this season — Reynolds ascending to stardom, Newman becoming one of the position players fans are most eager to replace, the result of some unsightly numbers that are among the worst for a regular contributor in franchise history.
By calibrating his timing and catching the ball
out front enough to pull it, Newman enjoyed arguably the most productive day of his career. It’s also the third time a Pirate s player has tied the MLB record for doubles, with Newman joining Adam Frazier (July 1, 2019) and Paul Waner (May 20, 1932).
What Newman di d Saturday increased his number of extra-base hits in August to seven (in 11 games). With more than two weeks to go, that’s already as many as he had in the previous 36 games combined.
“I’ve started to feel a little better as of late,” Newman said. “I’m trying to trust my approach and try to square up the ball, and I did that [Saturday].”