The Pirates broke out the brooms in today’s double header against the Brew Crew. This marked their 5th win in a row and put the Pirates in a position to execute a five game sweep of the Brewers on Sunday.
Pittsburgh’s offense exploded for seven home runs on the day, four of which came on back-to-back bombs by Marte and Polanco in each game played, two of them came from newcomer Jordan Luplow, and one came from Max Moroff. On the other side of the ball, the pitching was sharp while only allowing three runs on the day.
In light of this recent hot streak and the solid baseball played this afternoon, I’m left here scratching my head wondering who this team is.
Game One
The pitching was effective from both teams in game one of the DH. Nova and Anderson faced off to make for a tight ballgame in the early innings while both bullpens ensured it stayed that way.
Pittsburgh drew blood first when Marte and Polanco went back-to-back in the bottom of the 1st inning, giving the Pirates an early 2-0 lead.
The next three innings were relatively quite, aside from Dickerson making yet another outfield assist on a stellar play nabbing Saladino trying to stretch a single into a double.
Milwaukee finally got to Nova in the 5th inning when Yelich drove in Keon Broxton on a single to right field. After Lorenzo Cain reached on an infield single, Nova was yanked for Richard Rodriguez who struck out Travis Shaw to end the threat.
From there, the Bucs bullpen put the game on cruise control. Rodriguez had a 1-2-3 6th inning.
Edgar Santana came in and pitched the 7th inning. He walked Broxton but only faced three batters in the inning when he teamed up with Elias Diaz for a well executed strike em out / throw em out double play.
Crick worked a smooth 8th before handing the ball over to Vazquez in the 9th who earned the save and secured the Pirates victory.
Game 1 Score: Pirates 2, Brewers 1
W: Rodriguez L: Anderson S: Vazquez
Game Two
Clay Holmes started game two and delivered six shutout innings.
Pittsburgh got on the board in the 3th inning on a solo home run to left by Max Moroff.
They struck again in the 6th inning when Marte doubled to right and Freese brought him around to score with a single to center. Jordan Luplow kept the scoring going in the 7th with a solo shot to center field.
Pittsburgh’s offense exploded again in the 8th inning when Marte, Polanco, and Luplow all hit solo home runs.
With Michael Feliz on the mound, Milwaukee’s offense finally livened up a little bit in the 9th. Hernan Perez led off the inning with a single and Nottingham followed it up with a walk. After a strikeout by Orf, Lorenzo Cain singled to lead the bases. Feliz was able to strike out Yelich but yielded a two run single to Aguilar immediately thereafter.
That was the end of Feliz’s day as Vazquez came in to strike out Travis Shaw to end the ballgame.
Game 2 Score: Pirates 6, Brewers 2
W: Holmes L: Suter S: Vazquez
Pittsburgh will look to complete the 5 game sweep of Milwaukee, tomorrow at 1:35pm EDT.