Phillip Evans had been swinging a hot bat early in the season, but it pays to be lucky, too. He was fooled by Brandon Woodruff's sinker, but his swinging bunt went just far up the third base line for him to beat out an infield single.
That would be the only hit the Pirates had all night. Just about all the offense, too, as their only other base runner was Evans again, drawing a walk in the seventh. They barely even threatened to get something going, only driving two balls out of the infield.
Woodruff deserves most of the credit for shutting the Pirates down, striking out 10 over 6.1 innings in the Brewers' 3-0 win Wednesday.
"Pretty dominant," Derek Shelton said about Woodruff. "Executed all four pitches. Obviously kept us off-balance throughout the night."
But the Pirates' offense hasn't been able to muster much offense against starters so far this year. In the first six innings in games this year, they have scored just eight runs. That's the third fewest in baseball, ahead of only the Diamondbacks (7) and Rangers (6). The trade off is they have done quite well late in games, scoring 15 runs from the seventh inning on, six of which came Tuesday in their comeback victory. That is among the most in baseball.
Shelton has talked about how relievers were still ramping up compared to their starter brethren, Hitters are usually a bit behind pitchers entering spring training, so after a short summer camp, it is reasonable to think that starting pitchers could be at an advantage.
It should also be taken into consideration that so far, the Pirates have faced some pretty good starting pitching from the Cardinal and Brewers.
"I think one of the key points here is, especially this game and the [Jack] Flaherty game [opening day], is they just pitched really well." Shelton said. "They execute pitches really well and because of that made it challenging. Then when you get a really small sample size in six games, if you want to you can really magnify it out. I just think tonight we got pitched well, and their bullpen guys came in and threw the ball well, too."
But unless the Pirates start generating some offense early, the conversation will shift from the opposing pitchers to their hitters.
• For the second time this year, Joe Musgrove pitched pretty well. Not outstanding, but he went relatively deep and kept the Pirates in the game. 5.2 innings, three earned runs is just one out away from a quality start, after all. On a normal July night any other year, Shelton probably would have given him another batter to try to complete the inning.
Pitching pretty well doesn't cut it against another team's ace, though. With the shortened season and fewer off-days, he's going to pull that top matchup often.
"Skip gives me the ball on Opening Day for that reason, to be going up against the best of the best for most of my work this year," Musgrove said postgame.
Again, it was two home runs that did him in: A hanging changeup to Ben Gamel and a fastball to a fastball-hitter in Keston Hiura. He's had multiple starts like this as a Pirate where he looked fantastic for most of the night, but a few mistake pitches soured the outing.
There was a lot of stuff to like about this start. Same with his first. The bad stuff will be fresher on everyone's mind, though.
• I don't know what scouting report the Brewers are going off of for Bryan Reynolds in left, but it is probably time to update it:
That's two assists in two days for Reynolds, and three on the young season. For my money, this was the best throw so far.
Reynolds is the only outfielder in the league with multiple assists this year. No team, besides the Pirates, has three.
He hasn't done well at the plate in the early portions of the season, but he is still finding a way to contribute.
• This was a rough series for Josh Bell, who struck out all three times he came to the plate Wednesday and went 2-for-13 overall. The Brewers always seem to give him trouble, holding him to a .111/.234/.204 slash line in 2019 and a .670 career OPS entering this series.
Looking at how Woodruff attacked him Wednesday, there was a clear strategy in place: Lots of offspeed pitches and working low and away:
The only mistake pitch was the fastball that ran in on him, but after seeing nothing but slow stuff all day, Bell couldn't catch up to 98 mph.
• Conversely, the Brewers weren't afraid to pummel Gregory Polanco with fastballs, especially high and inside.
Here are the results of each pitch. Everything here, besides the whiff on the pitch low and away and the two low pitches, is a fastball:
Polanco admitted before the game that getting his timing back is the hardest part of returning.
"That's the toughest part, because my body, I feel good," he said. "I feel healthy, but the timing is tough. The only way you get better for your timing is by playing, taking at-bats. That's how you get your timing back. That's tough, because we don't have a minor league. We don't have nothing."
• That's two really bad plays at first base for Colin Moran in as games there. On Sunday, he cut off a ball that Adam Frazier was in position to get, resulting in the infield hit that led to the Cardinals' only run.
On Wednesday, it was more clear: He dropped a foul pop out. It was such a routine play that the fake crowd noise was amped up mid-miscue because it looked automatic.
Versatility is appealing, but the Pirates already have a pretty good backup first baseman in Jose Osuna. Even Evans can play the position, if Shelton would rather keep his bat in the lineup more.
Shelton said during summer camp that we would see a lot of Moran at third base. So far, we've seen more of Evans.
• Richard Rodriguez's fastball velocity is back to normal, sitting 92-94 mph Wednesday, and he turned in another clean frame. The two are directly related.
Rodriguez needs every mph on that heater. If he ever does permanently lose that tick, that could be it for him as a major-leaguer.
For now, it looks like the old Rodriguez is back, which is good news for a bullpen that is already done two late-inning relievers in Keone Kela and Kyle Crick and is heavily monitoring Nick Burdi.
• ...Dovydas Neverauskas has looked pretty good so far, too.
*Ducks*
Before you run to the comment section, he stranded an inherited runner Wednesday after pitching what should have been two scoreless frames on Monday, had it not been for the new extra-inning rule. Any skepticism or pessimism around him is completely justified, but his last chance with the club has gone fairly well so far. And that's not just because he's put up zeroes, but because he's looked pretty good doing it.
It appears he's embracing the cut on his fastball more. The previous regime preferred sink to cut, but movement is movement. And for all the criticism Neverauskas has taken over the years, nobody has ever said his stuff is flat.
He's still had some misfires, but they have been out of the zone instead of over the heart of the plate. Surrendering a few more walks to minimize hard contact sounds like a good trade.
• Major League Baseball is considering a request by the union to extend the window for when teams can use 30-player rosters, per Joel Sherman.
They should do it. Carrying four more league-minimum contracts isn't going to break the bank for anyone, and I can't imagine any field managers or pitching coaches are going to balk at the idea of having some more depth in the bullpen.
"I don't think it hurts," Trevor Williams said pregame. "This year is this year so interesting and so different. I think teams around the league thought 30 guys was going to be enough for this first week, but it's looking like league-wide there's so many weird injuries going on, there's so much back and forth, as far as health protocol. You don't want to have a constant revolving door with commercial flights and all that stuff."
The first cut from 30 to 28 players is a week away, unless the two sides agree to extend the window.
• Heading off to Chicago this afternoon. Have a feeling Wrigley is going to be the weirdest stadium to see without fans, but I'm sure there will still be some from the rooftops.
