PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - All throughout the off-season and Spring Training the Pirates starting rotation was the talk of the town and for the second consecutive night, Pirates pitching shutout the Reds and the offense scored late for the 2-0 victory.
Joe Musgrove continued the string of quality starts by the starters over the first week of the season as he pitched 7 scoreless innings while striking out 8 and only giving up 3 hits and 1 walk tonight agaist the Reds.
All five starters seem to have a drive to top the previous outing by the pitcher the night before and Musgrove says that just makes him want to keep getting better.
"This is the guy (Gray) that you gameplan for, this is the guy that did all the big time pitching in Oakland," said Hurdle. "He was getting the fastball down, keeping it low and his breaking ball, curveball was a factor tonight."
Gray retired 16 consecutive Pirates from the last out of the 1st inning through the end of the 6th before the Pirates were able to break through in the 7th inning when the Pirates started to push things on the basepaths and put pressure on the Reds defense.
The Pirates host the Reds in game 3 of this 4-game weekend series Saturday afternoon as Trevor Williams goes to the mound for the Pirates against Tanner Roark for the Reds. First pitch of the game is at 1:35 pm.