The Pirates went into Monday’s game at Coors Field with a 9-7 record, but a 7-9 Pythagorean record due to their -5 run differential. Not that run differential outweighs wins and losses, but there is something to the notion that a good team will really beat up on other teams now and then.
So the Pirates addressed that “concern” with a 14-3 drubbing of the Colorado Rockies.
The game wasn’t in doubt for long. Andrew McCutchen put the Pirates up, 1-0, in the first with home run number three. Then in the second, the Bucs piled up six runs while the Rockies looked like the 2020-22 Pirates.
It wasn’t exactly vintage Coors, with baseballs flying out left and right. The Pirates got their first two runs with one single, thanks to a walk, an error and the Rockies’ failure to get anybody on a Ji-Hwan Bae squeeze bunt. Three more singles, a run-scoring force play and a double steal by Bae and Austin Hedges led to four more.
And so it went. The Pirates got two more in the third and four in the fifth. The two in the third finished a miserable day for Rockies’ starter Kyle Freeland, who’s a pretty good pitcher. The final run came on a bomb in the ninth by Jack Suwinski (On the road! But off a position player . . .), who’d come in to replace Bryan Reynolds. Yes, the Pirates got to take some of their regulars out. It was Suwinski’s second of the year.
Rich Hill had the kind of start the Pirates were no doubt hoping to see a lot of. He gave up some runners early. In fact, Colorado put their first two runners on second and third, but Hill worked out of it, ultimately getting Elias Diaz to hit into a double play with the bases loaded.
Colorado got a run in the sixth on a solo shot by Kris Bryant, but that was all against Hill. He gave up six hits, half of them to Bryant, walked two and — the unexpected part — fanned seven. Hill finished on a good note, striking out two in a 1-2-3 sixth.
To follow Hill, Derek Shelton, always solicitous of his veterans, went with Wil Crowe even though he had a bullpen full of pitchers who didn’t blow yesterday’s game and could use some work. Crowe faced nine batters and let five of them reach base. He was rescued in the seventh thanks to a double play nicely turned by Mark Mathias. In the eighth, Crowe gave up two runs.
Jose Hernandez came on to get the last two outs of the eighth, then pitched around a couple singles in the ninth. Hernandez threw 18 of 21 pitches for strikes, so he seems to be making progress on that front.
The Pirates finished with 16 hits and struck out only four times. The only hits for extra bases were the two longballs and a double by Rodolfo Castro. Every starter except Connor Joe had a hit. Mathias had a big day, going 4-for-5. Ke’Bryan Hayes, Reynolds, McCutchen and Carlos Santana each had two hits. Hayes and Santana each drove in three. Bae, who just seems to be around when things happen, had only one hit, but scored three times and drove in two runs, all of it before the hit.
