Padres take advantage of 3 errors to top Pirates, who lose 5 of 6 in homestand
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Cole Tucker was pumped to be back in the Pittsburgh Pirates starting lineup Sunday, especially because of the opportunity to play his natural position at shortstop after stints at second base and in the outfield.
Tucker would have been poised to replace Kevin Newman when he was placed on the 10-day injured list with left groin injury strain. Instead, Tucker was stuck on the covid-19 injured list while battling a fever for three days and watched the Pirates turn to rookie Diego Castillo.
Tucker flashed his glove with a slick backhand stop on Austin Nola’s two-out grounder in the hole in the seventh inning but was charged with an error when his one-hop throw bounced out of first baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo’s glove on the scoop.
The San Diego Padres took advantage by scoring two unearned runs on the way to a 5-2 win Sunday afternoon before an announced crowd of 8,350 at PNC Park. The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 22 minutes by weather.
“Sometimes, when you make really good plays, we have to finish them. We didn’t finish that play, and unfortunately he gets an error for it,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I think that’s a ball that if you ask Yoshi, he probably should have caught. It was a short-hop. On the other side of it, we’ve got to make sure we get the ball in the air, so it’s kind of the yin and the yang there.”
After being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates lost two of three to the Padres to win once in their six-game homestand. They added a dubious distinction by breaking the 1988 Baltimore Orioles’ record for longest start to a season (21 games) without a win by a starting pitcher. Where those Orioles started 0-21, the Pirates are 9-13.
Even though he took the loss, Mitch Keller was hardly to blame. The right-hander turned in one of his better performances, allowing one run on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks in becoming the first Pirates starter to go six innings this season.
“He threw the ball really well. We just didn’t score any runs while he was in the game,” Shelton said of Keller, whose velocity on his four-seam fastball sat at 96.7 mph and nearly touched triple digits. “When you don’t walk people, it allows you to go longer in the game. So I think that was encouraging, and then the fact that his velocity maintained throughout the game was something that was very impressive.”
Keller was outdueled by Padres starter Joe Musgrove, who spent three seasons with the Pirates after being acquired from Houston in the Gerrit Cole trade. Musgrove gave up one run on seven hits and eight strikeouts without a walk in seven innings.
“This is one I’ve had on the calendar marked for a little while, not in the sense that I have a grudge against these guys or anything,” said Musgrove, who was traded to San Diego in January 2021, “but anytime you leave somewhere and you go back, you have that sense of wanting to show them what they missed out on.”
The Pirates missed an opportunity to score in the first inning after Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan got back-to-back hits. Tsutsugo grounded into a fielder’s choice to put runners on first and third, but Ben Gamel flew out to end the inning.
Keller allowed only one runner through the first two innings, when Eric Hosmer hit a dribbler down the third-base line and Keller misfired on the throw to first. Keller struck out three of the first seven batters he faced.
Nola started the third with a single, advanced to second on Trent Grisham’s single through short in the shift and scored on Manny Machado’s single to left field to give the Padres a 1-0 lead.
Keller gave up another infield single to C.J. Abrams in the fifth but followed that with an 11-pitch showdown with Trent Grisham. After taking two called strikes, Grisham fouled off six pitches before finally swinging at a 96.7 mph fastball high in the strike zone. Keller got Jake Cronenworth to ground out to third, but that battle took its toll.
After a 1-2-3 sixth ended with Gamel’s diving catch in left field to rob Hosmer of a hit, Chase De Jong replaced Keller for the seventh.
De Jong got in a jam after Tucker’s throwing error as Abrams followed with a double down the right-field line to put runners on second and third for Grisham, who hit a two-run single to right for a 3-0 lead.
The Pirates answered when Jack Suwinski singled to right, advanced to second on Tucker’s groundout to first and scored on a Roberto Perez single off the Clemente Wall to cut it to 3-1.
A turning point came when Padres manager Bob Melvin was ejected before the eighth inning, and they pulled Musgrove after seven strong innings. Robert Suarez walked Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes and loaded the bases when Tsutsugo got a single that hit off Suarez.
The Padres brought in lefty Tim Hill, but Shelton countered by having right-handed Michael Chavis — who hit a tying two-run homer in Saturday night’s 7-6 win in 10 innings — to pinch hit for Gamel. Chavis hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Reynolds and cut it to 3-2.
Diego Castillo pinch-hit for Josh VanMeter with the tying run at second and the go-ahead run at first but hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, which stood upon review after the Pirates challenged the call.
The Padres padded their lead to 4-2 against Chris Stratton in the ninth, when Jose Azocar singled off the glove of Hayes at third then advanced to third on Nola’s single to left and scored on a sacrifice fly by Abrams. Miguel Yajure replaced Stratton but gave up an RBI single to Cronenworth that scored Nola for a 5-2 lead.
Taylor Rogers struck out Jake Marisnick and Tucker and got Perez to ground out to short to earn his ninth save.
Keller was more concerned with his quality start than taking another loss.
“I’m not really too concerned about the win-loss record,” Keller said. “If I can just keep runs off the board, I think that keeps us in the game. We were in the game the whole time there. Even the last inning, we still had a shot. We were down three. Two base hits and a blast there gets us right back in it. Not too worried about that. Just trying to throw up zeroes as many times as I can.”