Here’s the basic gist of things: the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 at PNC Park today, eking out a series tie.
Now comes the “wait, WHAT?” part—the Bucs were no-hit, mostly by hot Reds rookie hurler Hunter Greene.
This was only the sixth time in Major League history that a team that threw a no-no was on the losing end, and it hasn’t happened since 2008.
But this is a Pirates blog, so let’s look at them.
Jose Quintana, while obviously not getting a no-hitter, gave up three hits and got five Ks in seven innings, the longest outing a Pirates starter has had this year. Chris Stratton relieved him kind of scarily, particularly when Alejo Lopez doubled off him, followed by a Colin Moran walk. However, he struck out Matt Reynolds and got Brandon Drury to fly out.
Greene, who has a lethal fastball and is developing a very effective slider, started wobbling in the bottom of the eighth inning. After a Jack Suwinski groundout, he walked Rodolfo Castro and Michael Perez, pushing his pitch count to 118. He came out, and Art Warren came in. He proceeded to walk Ben Gamel on four straight pitches to load the bases for Ke’Bryan Hayes. Here is the total offense for the Bucs:
And we oop! pic.twitter.com/qpDAPT6WHt
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 15, 2022
It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.
Actually, the eighth inning was by far the most exciting of the game, considering that Derek Shelton got tossed at the start for arguing balls and strikes after Josh VanMeter got called out on strikes at the end of the seventh. I use “exciting” loosely, but I take what I can get.
As he’s been doing, David Bednar dealt out the pop, line, and ground outs to get the save, and the Jolly Roger was raised over PNC.
Yeah, it’s not great to struggle against a team whose wins ... well, mostly come from you. The Bucs’ bats are still unnervingly quiet, and Stratton continues to make me nervous when he comes in. Quintana, though, is proving to be a solid pickup, and “Renegade” is starting to be something other than the Steelers’ battle cry.
Bring on the Cubs!
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