MIAMI -- So, I couldn't help but ask Derek Shelton, this is how it's gonna be?
"Ha!" he'd reply with a slight smile and a slighter shake of the head. "I hope not."
And then a laugh.
"If that's the case, then we'll take it," he'd add. "But I was just happy we played throughout the whole game."
Good stuff from the manager:
Better stuff from those who took the field for the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 143rd season opener, a 6-5 success over the Marlins on this Thursday evening at loanDepot park that took 12 innings and, purely from the visitors' perspective ...
• The hitters' stomach-turning 17 strikeouts that'd be offset by home runs from Bryan Reynolds, Edward Olivares and Oneil Cruz:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) March 28, 2024
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) March 28, 2024
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) March 28, 2024
That tying shot from Cruz in the eighth, his first official home run since you-know-when, screamed off the bat at 105.5 mph to the opposite field off a pitch high and away. Because that's just par for his course.
“You don’t see very many guys left-handed do what he did today," Shelton would say. "That’s why he’s a special talent.”
You also don't see many guys who'd enjoy it as much as Cruz was. Walking on air afterward. Awesome to witness.
“That felt so good,” he’d tell me. “You see?”
I saw. We all did.
• The harried start from Mitch Keller that'd be offset by a half-dozen relievers -- Josh Fleming, Hunter Stratton, Ryan Borucki, Aroldis Chapman, Luis Ortiz and Jose Hernandez -- serving up 6 1/3 scoreless innings and allowing a solitary single within that, capped by Hernandez's 1-2-3 12th for a save on the same day he was an emergency recall from Class AAA Indianapolis:
Jose Hernandez picks up his first MLB save! :clap: pic.twitter.com/2T58bxNWZP
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 28, 2024
I asked Hernandez, based in part on the above body language, if he'd experienced any extra nerves with that final hitter, and his answer was wonderful.
“Being honest," he'd reply through interpreter Stephen Morales, "after that second out, my emotions went down a little bit. I was able to be more calm, just because I was no longer the one with the pressure. It was them, because I was facing the possible third out."
• The handful of mess-ups on defense and on the basepaths, including a mindblowing three runners thrown out at home, that'd be offset by golden glovework from Ke'Bryan Hayes and Connor Joe:
Ke'Bryan Hayes just makes it look so damn easy
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) March 28, 2024
Platinum Glove. Now. pic.twitter.com/UPq4dzrnc3
What a catch by Connor Joe and the Bucs turn 2!! pic.twitter.com/afG5crruLg
— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) March 28, 2024
I mean ...
“The first one's always the toughest, I hear," Jared Triolo would tell me, "so it's good to get that one out of the way.”
Heck, I could add a bullet just for him, since his uncharacteristic muff of a double-play relay handed Miami an early run, and that'd be more than offset by his dropping the decisive single into right field in the 12th:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) March 28, 2024
“The ball off the bat was one thing," he'd say, "but the crowd reaction and seeing our team's reaction was something special.”
It's only the opener. Or, as Reynolds would joke, "Let's have 161 more like that. Here we go."
In the same breath, though, I'm comfortable putting forth that these Pirates might have to muddle through a slew of these this summer, presuming their stated goal of contending and partaking in the playoffs were to become serious. Because they're far from perfect. Keller's expected to be the strength of this rotation, so most or all of what's about to follow should be a step below. The bullpen, bullish as I've been on this on this bunch, can't be covering four-plus innings every night. The defense behind those pitchers ... eh, we'll see. And the hitting ...
Man, I don't know what to do with this subject. I really don't.
I keep spinning back to what that American League scout observed next to me the one afternoon in Bradenton, Fla., a month ago: "Tell me, other than Reynolds and Hayes, who's going to hit on this team?"
Cruz makes for an obvious beginning to an objection, but it only feels fair, even with his already going deep, to give him time to fully bounce back from a major injury.
Andrew McCutchen makes for an equally obvious objection, though he himself might not offer one on this day after an 0-for-5, four-strikeout exception that moved him to quip on social:
Well… we won at least lol. Go Bucs.
— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) March 29, 2024
Jack Suwinski, slugger of a team-high 26 home runs in 2023, makes for a less obvious but plausible objection, but Shelton didn't think enough of Suwinski's status on the roster to start him on opening day, opting for Joe in right field and Rowdy Tellez at first against the lefty Jesus Luzardo.
See what I'm seeing? Or what the scout saw?
Luzardo was both dynamic and precise in working down in the zone, registering 17 swings and misses mostly through a nosediving slider. But everyone else the Marlins sent to the mound was ringing up Ks, too, often in no-mas matchups. It was whiff after whiff after whiff, bad take after bad take after bad take, the latter to the extent that the 32,564 on hand were cheering pretty much every pitch that didn't get an offer, fully expecting it to go their way.
Sorry, that's too familiar to not be unsettling. So were the 13 men left on base. And the 2-for-17 output with runners in scoring position.
Reynolds and Hayes went a combined 4 for 9 with a home run, a double, two RBIs and three walks, but hey, that's only further fulfilling the scout's evaluation, right?
Now, that said, it'll take precisely this level of collective effort -- all facets -- for this team to progress. And that's, without a doubt, in my eyes, the most welcome takeaway from this event.
Loved how Borucki worded it when I asked what this might mean toward those next 161.
"This is what’s gonna happen," he'd reply, pointing back toward the field. "We’re gonna face good teams and they’re gonna battle, but it just shows the kinda resilience we have already. Mitch pitched a really good game, even though he didn’t have probably his A-plus stuff, he kept us in the game. For us in the pen to be able to hand the ball off like a baton, it was really good. It just shows how promising this bullpen is. And we're playing great defense and have timely hitting, which is what good ball clubs need to have to win those close games.”
No. 2's Friday, 7:10 p.m., the next chance to chop down some of those strikeouts.
• No Insider this week because of the day-long coverage down here. Big event 'n' at.
• Thanks for reading.
• And for listening:
