It was the best of starts, it was the worst of starts.
Aaron Judge lead off the bottom of the first for the New York Yankees with a double. Pittsburgh Pirates starter Roansy Contreras almost worked out of a runners on the corners with one out situation before walking Giancarlo Stanton and giving up a grand slam to Oswaldo Cabrera for a quick 4-0 deficit.
After that, the 22 year old rookie showed some grit, allowing only a double while racking up the strike outs through the next three innings. Including Harrison Bader to end the first, Contreras struck out seven of the next eleven batters he faced.
Roansy was on his way to completing five innings with a runner on second — Aaron Judge’s second double of the game — with two outs before the Yankees strung two hits together (and a wild pitch mixed in that I feel Delay should’ve had) and scored two more runs to end Contreras’ evening. Chase De Jong entered the game with and struck out Stanton to end the inning and the Pirates down 6-1.
Roansy Contreras ended the evening with six earned runs in 4.2 IP while walking two and striking out ten batters. He generated a lot of whiffs on the evening with 19 total, but he also gave up a lot of hard contact with an average exit velocity of 97.3 MPH.
Up to that point the Pirates managed to only score one run on a Ke’Bryan Hayes sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. The offense attempted to threaten in the sixth with two outs, after Hayes collected another RBI on a single that put runners on first and third. Michael Chavis replaced Cal Mitchell to face the Yankees LHP Lucas Luetge, and promptly grounded out to end the threat.
De Jong came back out for the sixth and had a very efficient seven pitch inning setting down the Yankees in order. He ended the night with 1.1 hitless innings and one strike out.
Miguel Yajure was tabbed for the seventh and had himself a quick 1-2-3 inning on only nine pitches with one strike out. Yajure came back out for the eighth and that’s when things began to really tumble.
Gleyber Torres kicked off the bottom of the eighth with a HR. Yajure then walked the next two batters followed by an RBI double that ended his evening. That brought in Eric Stout, who entered the evening having allowed seven of his thirteen inherited runners to score. Well, as you could guess, he allowed both inherited runners to score. And then some. So much so, that Gleyber Torres came back up to bat and hit his second HR of the inning, a three run shot to put the score at 14-2.
That would be the ending score as at least the Pirates didn’t let Judge hit another HR.
Cubs @ Pirates
Time: 6:35 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Mitch Keller (5-11, 4.03)
Cubs Starter: Hayden Wesneski (1-1, 2.30)
Keller Notes: Pirates return home after a rough New York road trip to face a team that’s a little more their speed. Mitch Keller will be making his 27th start of the season and looking to finally drop his ERA below four. After back-to-back shutouts, Keller gave up three earned runs across six innings to the New York Mets. It has easily been Keller’s best season in the big leagues and he’ll look to finish strong over the last couple weeks.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Back at home.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/i8ZqjicphD
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 22, 2022
Cubs
Here is tonight's #Cubs starting lineup in Pittsburgh. pic.twitter.com/TwF6TG70Ih
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 22, 2022
UPDATE: David Bednar returns
