Bucs win the opener out west, 6-3

The Pirates looked sharp while taking the series opener against the Padres, 6-3. Joe Musgrove made his San Diego debut at the Major League level in front of friends and family and did so in grand fashion, throwing seven shutout innings and striking out five on 88 pitches.

Pittsburgh’s bats backed up Musgrove while scoring six runs in the first four inning. The Pirates’ hitters banged out eleven hits with Bell, Harrison, Polanco, and Mercer all recording two hit performances.

Here’s how the scoring went:

It was all Pirates in the first four innings. Josh Bell muscled a single up the middle with one out in the 1st inning and went from first to third on Harrison’s single, to follow up. Harrison advanced to second on the throw because that’s what Harrison does. The Pirates were able to plate their first run of the game when Josh Bell scored on a passed ball with Freese batting. That wound up being all the Pirates could muster during this scoring threat but they would reengage the offense in the 3rd inning.

Marte led off the 3rd inning with a single up the middle and showed off the speed while stealing second base and easily coasting into third on an Austin Hedges throwing error. With no outs and Marte standing on third, Bell chopped a double down the third base line, plating Marte. Harrison followed it up with a single to right, putting runners at the corners. After a Freese strikeout, Elias Diaz hit a ground ball up the middle, forcing Freddy Galvis to field the ball. Instead of transferring the ball from glove to hand before executing the flip to second base, Galvis opted to attempt the ‘glove flip’ which pulled the second baseman off the bag, allowing Harrison to reach safely. After Dickerson struck out, Polanco worked a solid at bat that resulted in a bases clearing double to right. Polanco cleared himself from the bases while getting thrown out at third trying to take the extra base.

The Pirates scored their final run of the game in the 4th inning when Mercer led the inning off with a home run to center.

Offensively, there wasn’t much noise for either team until the 8th. Steven Brault came on in to relieve Musgrove but was greeted with back to back singles from Hosmer and Myers. After a wild pitch allowed the runners to advance into scoring position, Spangenberg grounded out to Mercer, allowing Hosmer to score and Myers to advance to third. Brault was then pulled for Kyle Crick who gave up an RBI single to Villanueva before retiring the final two hitters of the inning.

The Padres were able to score one more run in the 9th inning when Edgar Santana gave up a double to Renfroe and a single to Margot. Then Vazquez came in and shut the door.

The Bucs are set for game two of the series at 10:10pm EDT while Trevor Williams takes on Joey Lucchesi.