MIAMI -- Steven Brault has shown flashes of being an above-average major-league pitcher in the past. The problem was he could never maintain them for sustained success.
Brault, though, may finally be turning the corner.
The left-hander pitched six innings Friday night and combined with relievers Michael Feliz, Clay Holmes and Richard Rodriguez on a nine-hit shutout, as the Pirates routed the Marlins 11-0 in the opener of a three-game series at Marlins Park. You can read about the game here.
The Pirates snapped a seven-game losing streak. During the slide, the Pirates allowed an average of 7.7 runs a game to the Braves and Brewers while giving up at least five runs in each contest.
Granted, the Marlins are not the Braves or Brewers. Still, Brault did impressive work.
Though Brault allowed eight hits, they were all singles. He also held the Marlins hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners in the first four innings.
It was the fourth consecutive encouraging start for Brault since he was put back into the rotation for the second time this season. The move was made by default because the Pirates have had so many pitchers injured. In those four games, he is 2-0 with a 1.25 ERA.
“He’s put in the work and we have some good pitching coaches who have helped him,” Clint Hurdle said. “The biggest thing, though, is he knew he had to make changes. He’s been much more aggressive, done a much better job of attacking hitters.”
Timidity had always been the knock against Brault, the thought being he was afraid to throw the ball over the plate for fear it would be hit a long way.
However, Brault showed the attack mentality in a big way Friday. He not only had zero walks, but never went to a three-ball count to any of the 26 batters he faced.
“It you don’t have any three-ball counts then you’re not going to walk anybody,” Hurdle said with a grin.
Through his first eight games this season – two starts and six relief appearances – Brault had 21 strikeouts and 16 walks for a 1.3 strikeout/walk ratio. Brault punched out six Marlins, giving him 19 strikeouts and eight walks in his past four starts for a ratio of 2.4.
I asked Brault about the importance of throwing strikes:
• Dario Agrazal makes his major-league debut Saturday night when he will officially be called up from Class AAA Indianapolis and start against the Marlins. There are obviously many people who he hopes to make proud.
First and foremost is his family. There are also his fellow countrymen in Panama. And then there are three significant players in Pirates history --- Omar Moreno, Manny Sanguillen and Rennie Stennett.
All three are Panamanian and remain connected to the organization. Moreno is a special assistant to the baseball operations department; Sanguillen and Stennett serve as guest instructors in spring training.
“They have all helped me so much,” Agrazal said Friday through translator Mike Gonzalez. “I know they are happy that I have made it (to the major leagues) and I want to do well for them.”
Agrazal will become just the 63rd major-leaguer who was born in Panama. In July, Mariano Rivera will join Rod Carew as the second Panamanian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Panama has never been one of the major baseball hotbeds in Latin America. However, it did have a bit of resurgence in February when the Panamanian team won the Caribbean Series.
Originally, Panama wasn’t supposed to be part of the five-team round robin. However, the Panamanians gained a spot when the nation stepped in to host the event in Panama City at the last minute after officials decided to move it from Caracas because of political unrest in Venezuela.
• I find it amusing that some fans – and media members – who have taken to calling Josh Bell a one-month wonder as he has been unable to replicate his remarkable May in June.
Well, Babe Ruth would have a hard time having Bell’s May. Granted, of course, if the Bambino were still alive.
Bell went 1 for 3 on Friday and drove in two runs with a triple and sacrifice fly. He is hitting .321/.389/656 with 19 home runs and 63 RBIs in 68 games this season. Nobody could have predicted those numbers at this juncture of the season back on opening day. In fact, there was a certain segment of fans who didn’t even think Bell’s deserved to be in the opening-day lineup because of his poor showing in spring training.
Bell already has hit seven more homers than last season. Yet what is most impressive is that he has now surpassed last year’s total of 62 RBIs in 148 games.
The merits of RBIs are hotly debated between baseball’s old-school and new-school groups. I like to think I have one foot in both camps, but I’m decidedly old school when it comes to RBIs.
As long as the winner of a baseball game is determined by which team scores the most runs, RBIs will be an important statistic.
• I’m out of things to say about Bryan Reynolds at this point. He had four hits Friday, setting a career high. He raised his batting average to .364 and his on-base percentage to .415 through 49 games. Both figures are tops among major-league rookies.
Well, I guess there is something I can say. The Pirates got the better end of the deal when they traded Andrew McCutchen to the Giants for Reynolds and Kyle Crick in January 2018.
And, for as much as Crick has helped the bullpen the past two seasons, McCutchen-for-Reynolds in a straight-up deal would have tilted in the Pirates’ favor.
• This marked the first time I covered a regular-season game at Marlins Park, though I had been here for the World Baseball Classic and World Series in 2017.
It was a unique experience, starting with the sparse crowd of 8,340 despite being a Friday night. That is how much the fans are turned off by the Marlins, even though Derek Jeter became their chief executive officer last season.
However, the Marlins are at least trying to liven things up by incorporating a Latin American-type flair that includes a drum line that plays when the Marlins are up to bat and a dance team that is rather scantily clad. Those touches wouldn’t work in many other places and might even be looked at as cheesy. However, they add a winter-ball feel to the proceedings and is cool in a city with a very large Latino population.
Oh, and Marlins Park has a retractable roof. That was huge Friday as torrential rains and flash floods hit the area about two hours before first pitch. The game would have been postponed in a strictly open-air stadium.
