Pirates come up short against Giants in SS Liover Peguero’s major-league debut
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All eyes were on Liover Peguero as fans clapped in unison for the 21-year-old shortstop who made the jump from Double-A Altoona to starting at shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates in his major-league debut.
Peguero faced a full count with two outs and runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth inning, when he stepped out of the batter’s box and took a deep breath after the first two pitches to collect himself.
“To be honest, I had my heart right here,” Peguero said, raising his hand from his chest to his throat. “I was just trying to be really focused and simplify myself. It was really tough.”
Peguero drew a walk to load the bases, but the San Francisco Giants escaped that scoring threat unscathed — getting Tyler Heineman to pop up to first for the final out — then tacked on an insurance run in the ninth for a 7-5 win before 26,041 on Saturday at PNC Park.
It was the 11th loss in the past 12 games for the Pirates, who recalled Peguero just hours before Friday’s first pitch when infielder/outfielder Tucupita Marcano was placed on the covid-19 injured list.
Peguero didn’t just make his major-league debut, but the Pirates’ No. 5 prospect made franchise history by becoming their first player born in the 21st century.
Pirates shortstop Liover Peguero talks about making his major league debut Saturday against the Giants and drawing a two-out walk to load the bases in the eighth inning. pic.twitter.com/bwOdbRQ5nB
— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) June 19, 2022
“I was really excited to see my dream come true,” Peguero said. “It was a very amazing thing to experience. I was nervous at first when I got the news, but thank goodness I had a good time over there. I feel like I handled it pretty well.”
Pirates manager Derek Shelton called it a “good debut” for Peguero, who went 1 for 3 with a single and walk and rose to the occasion in the game’s biggest moment.
“The at-bat in the eighth was a major-league at-bat,” Shelton said, noting that Peguero steered clear of Jake McGee’s slider. “To draw a walk there and lay off some pitches. … really good at-bat.”
Proximity factored into the decision why Peguero leapfrogged the Pirates’ top prospect, 6-foot-7 shortstop Oneil Cruz, who was playing for Triple-A Indianapolis in Gwinnett, Ga.
Peguero became the 11th player to make his major-league debut for the Pirates this season, which ties the 1952 team for most in the club’s first 64 games, and the eighth player the Pirates have used under the age of 23. That’s the most by any team in MLB this season.
He also became the youngest Pirates player to appear in a game since Aramis Ramirez (19 years, 335 days) made his debut May 26, 1998.
With the Giants starting lefty Alex Wood, Shelton figured it was the perfect time to start the righty-hitting Peguero.
“Anytime we can get our young kids in this environment, regardless for the amount of time, it’s really important,” Shelton said beforehand, “because the speed of the game is completely different here.”
Giants manager Gabe Kapler started a lineup that leaned heavily on right-handed bats against Pirates lefty starter Jose Quintana. And it worked, as No. 2 hitter Wilmer Flores sent Quintana’s 3-2 fastball 395 feet into the left-field bleachers for a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
The Pirates answered when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a leadoff single and scored from third on Diego Castillo’s sacrifice fly to center to tie it at 1-1, but the Giants stretched their lead to 2-1 in the third when Curt Casali hit a leadoff single to left, advanced to second on Austin Slater’s walk and scored on Darin Ruf’s single.
Hayes led off the third with a double to left-center and stole third base when Wood wasn’t looking. Michael Chavis drew a walk, then reached second on a passed ball by Casali to put runners on second and third.
That’s when Castillo snapped out of a slump in a big way by driving Wood’s 2-2 sinker 418 feet to left field for a three-run shot that was his fourth homer of the season to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead. Castillo was hitting .076 (3 for 40) this month before his homer. Castillo’s four RBIs matched a season best by a Pirates player.
“Things like that are huge for me,” Castillo said. “Hitting a bomb, hitting a double, basically anything you can do to help the team. I’m going to take that as a good moment to turn everything around.”
Peguero recorded his first putout in the fourth, fielding a Casali grounder for the final out, then got his first major-league hit in the bottom of the inning when he smoked Wood’s 1-0 sinker for a single to right field.
The Giants cut it to 4-3 when Austin Slater hit a 408-foot homer to center off Quintana, who has given up five homers in his past two starts. Quintana allowed three runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts on 95 pitches in 5 1⁄3 innings.
Quintana was pulled after striking out Gonzalez to start the fifth, and Wil Crowe gave up a single to the next batter, Thairo Estrada. That’s when Kapler turned a pair of lefties as pinch hitters against the right-handed Crowe.
The first was Brandon Belt, who drew a walk. The Giants tied it at 4-4 when Brandon Crawford singled to right to score Estrada, then took a 5-4 lead when the second pinch hitter, Mike Yastrzemski, hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to center to score Belt.
“It just looked like he couldn’t find the zone,” Shelton said of Crowe. “I haven’t seen the replay of any of ‘em, but it looks like he just missed off. From what I heard, they were off. They weren’t strikes. He’s been really good for us. He just didn’t command the ball.”
Kapler employed the same strategy against Chris Stratton in the seventh, using lefty-hitting Joc Pederson to pinch hit for Darin Ruf. Pederson drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second when Longoria walked and scored on a double by Gonzalez to right-center for a 6-4 lead.
The Pirates turned to a lefty pinch hitter in the eighth, and Daniel Vogelbach drove Dominic Leone’s 1-0 fastball 390 feet over the Clemente Wall in right field for his eighth homer to cut it to 6-5.
It was the first pinch-hit homer for the Pirates this season, the third in Vogelbach’s career and his first that wasn’t a grand slam.
Suwinski drew a walk and another lefty pinch hitter, Hoy Park, singled to left to put runners on first and second. Peguero drew the walk to load the bases before Heineman popped out to end the scoring threat.
The Giants added another run against Heath Hembree in the ninth, when Luis Gonzalez reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Belt’s double to right for a two-run lead. Camilo Doval retired the top of the Pirates’ lineup in order in the bottom of the ninth for the second consecutive game to earn his 11th save.
Shelton made no promises that Peguero was here to stay, so the shortstop attempted to soak up every second of his stay in the majors.
“I think it’s going to be a long way, but it’s so amazing and so important right now having a first time for everything,” Peguero said. “I think we’re going to have a lot of good times.”