Pirates down White Sox in home opener 13-9

Sorry for the late recap after such a big win, everyone. But the writer’s dashboard has been down for a while and just now is back up.

But anyway, the Pittsburgh Pirates moved their record to 5-2 with a massive 13-9 victory over the Chicago White Sox in the home opener following big games from Bryan Reynolds, Andrew McCutchen, Ji Hwan Bae and Connor Joe.

Reynolds was the clear star of the show, however, finishing the day 3-for-5 with three runs scored and six RBIs. He had a three-run dinger in the fourth and also a bases-clearing triple in the fifth inning in which Reynolds also ended up scoring on a throwing error.

Reynolds leads the Majors in homers with five and in RBIs with 13. He’a also hitting .448, which is good enough for fourth overall in the Majors.

Connor Joe went 4-for-5 with three doubles, two runs and an RBI, while Ji Hwan Bae went 3-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI, and Jason Delay finished with an identical line, sub the double.

Andrew McCutchen came out to thunderous chants of “MVP” in his first at-bat back in the ‘Burgh and went 2-for-5 on the day, while Carlos Santana got the Pittsburgh scoring started with his second homer of the year, a solo shot in the second inning.

This was a back and forth contest because Bucs starter Rich Hill was awful, going four innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits with no walks and one strikeout, including three homers given up. He’s got an ERA of 10.00 in his two starts, while Dauri Moreta pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Wil Crowe closed it out and gave up two runs in three innings, but the Bucs had taken control by then.

The Pittsburgh offense will look to keep things rolling again today, when they take on the Sox at 6:35pm. Don’t look now, Pittsburgh, but the Bucs are off to a pretty dang good start.