Scrappy Pirates outlast an old friend on mound
Polanco hits his first homer of the season in second off Musgrove, jumpstarts win
It’s rare these days for the Pirates to become a national story. Such is life in their current competitive cycle. But functioning as the foil while their former pitcher tried to follow his no-hitter with a strong outing in the place where he used to play?
Yeah, they could do that.
For anyone wondering how Joe Musgrove might have fared against his former team, or whether he might go all Johnny Vander Meer and twirl a second consecutive no-no, the scrappy Pirates improbably became the more interesting part of Wednesday’s game.
Their 5-1 victory over the San
Diego Padres at PNC Park ensured at least a split against one of the best teams in baseball. The win was less about Musgrove and more about what Tyler Anderson, Gregory Polanco, Adam Frazier and Colin Moran did, about the Pirates taking two of the first three against the big, bad Padres, with a chance
for more on Thursday.
“Really good effort by our guys,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Tyler Anderson was outstanding. That’s a good lineup, a hard lineup to navigate through for a left-hander, and he did a hell of a job.”
The Pirates (5-7) have now won four of five. They’ve scored 30 runs in those games after pushing across just 19 in their first seven. They also beat one of their former employees for the second time in four days — Musgrove Wednesday, Trevor Williams of the Cubs on Sunday. The Pirats won for the eighth time in the past nine against San Diego, which mustered only one run against Anderson and a handful of relievers.
Frazier finished with three hits, two doubles and two RBIs in a three-run eighth which allowed the Pirates to exhale. Moran contributed a key RBI. Anderson earned his first win as a Pirate.
But arguably the biggest story was Polanco, who hit his first home run of the season in the second inning, turning on a high-andinside fastball and sending it to the seats in right field.
The home run comes at an interesting time, after Shelton did not start Polanco the previous two games, allowing him to do extra side work with hitting coach Rick Eckstein and assistant Christian Marrero.
“We had talked about him being inconsistent with his timing,” Shelton said. “His timing was definitely better.”
The home run was the 47th for Polanco in this ballpark, tying him with Craig Wilson for fifth place on the career home runs list at PNC Park. Next up: Garrett Jones with 51. Also noticeable for Polanco in this one was his plate discipline, the outfielder grinding out a few at-bats.
After failing to convert on scoring chances in the third and fourth, the Pirates finally pushed a second run across in the fifth, when Frazier led off with a double, and Moran stroked a first-pitch curveball up the middle. It was Moran’s seventh RBI this season out of the cleanup spot. Only Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer (9) has more among National League players who hit there in the order.
Meanwhile, it was hard to dislike Anderson’s performance. The left-hander went 5.1 innings and
allowed an earned run on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts. His cutter has been a big weapon for him, and he was also around the plate a lot — which has been a bit of a bugaboo for Pirates starting pitchers.
“They hit some balls pretty hard that were still good pitches but at some guys, which is great,” Anderson said. “I think for
the most part it’s all just trying to make quality pitches. I think that was what helped [Wednesday].”
So did a 1-2-3 first, which had not happened for a Pirates pitcher this season. Pirates opponents had scored at least one run in eight of 11 games coming in before Anderson breezed through the top of the first on just seven pitches.
“If you can get out and
have a good first inning, I just feel like it sets a good tone,” Anderson said.
The only run the Pirates allowed came in the sixth on a single from Tommy Pham.
Musgrove worked four innings and allowed the Polanco homer among his four hits, walking two and striking out six. The righthander won a terrific battle with Moran in the first, getting his former teammate looking on a cutter on the 11th pitch of the at-bat.
In his first and only atbat, Musgrove singled. He also stared down good friend Phillip Evans before a third-inning at-bat and wound up striking out his former roommate and live batting practice partner with a nasty slider.
But in the end, the Pirates got the best of Musgrove and his Padres.
“It means a lot, because he’s our friend. He’s our guy,” Polanco said. “But hey, when we’re out there, we’re competing. You know, he was coming off that no-hitter, so this means a lot.”