PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - After struggling the previous two games against St. Louis, the Pirates bullpen, combined with a strong start from Jordan Lyles, was able to shutout the Cincinnati Reds Thursday night at PNC Park 2-0.
Lyles made his Pittsburgh Pirates debut and pitched 5 scoreless innings while only giving up 3 hits, 3 walks and struck out 2.
Vasquez was asked about the struggles of the bullpen early in the season and bouncing back quickly after some struggles.
"I have trouble using the term bounce back this early, we just have to go play baseball." said Hurdle. "It was a well pitched game by us, a well executed game plan by our pitchers and they all deserve some credit tonight."
The Pirates played some small ball tonight to get the two runs on the board tonight with the first run being set up on a well executed hit and run with Pablo Reyes on first base and J.B Shuck at the plate.
"He (Reyes) got a good reaction, Shuck makes the play happen and we're just trying to hit the ball hard where it's pitched," said Hurdle. "Pablo made a good read, it was an important play and we were able to get a battle at bat from Newman. They made a nice pitch and he got enough of it just to move it and make something happen to score a run."
Listen to Hurdle's complete postgame conversation with the media below.
Game 2 of this 4-game series takes place Friday night here at PNC Park at 7:05 pm as the Pirates send Joe Musgrove to the mound against the Reds Sonny Gray.