The positive vibes from their two-game winning streak took a hit last night as the Pirates were bombed by the Milwaukee Brewers and Oneil Cruz gave manager Don Kelly another headache. Joe Block recaps the loss.
Manager Don Kelly removed Oneil Cruz from the game in the eighth inning after he failed to run out a grounder that turned into a double play. It came just days after Cruz made an error and didn’t bother to run after a ball that got beyond him in center field. Kelly says it was another mental lapse.
Cruz said Kelly was right to take him out of the game. Kelly says the slumping Cruz can’t let his struggles at the plate affect affect the rest of his game.
It was a second straight subpar outing for Andrew Heaney. Kelly says the veteran struggled to command his fastball.
The Pirates yesterday optioned Hunter Stratton back to Indianapolis and called up reliever Michael Darrell-Hicks, who threw two innings without giving up a run last night, although he did uncork a wild pitch to allow an inherited runner to score.
The series concludes this afternoon in Milwaukee. It’s a great pitching matchup between the Pirates’ Paul Skenes [4-6, 1.85 ERA] and Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski, who is 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA in his first two starts, including taking a perfect game into the seventh inning last week against the Twins. Brewers’ veteran pitch Brandon Woodruff summed it up best, saying ”Good luck to the hitters.”
Airtime is 1:45 with first pitch at 2:10 on WCCS.
