PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Allowing four earned runs in all of May, Pirates starter Jose Quintana gave up four on Tuesday night in a 5-3 Detroit win.
The veteran lefty gave up three runs in the fourth, allowing five of the first six runners to reach before being replaced.
“I thought the fastball was in the middle of the plate,” said Pirates Manager Derek Shelton. “He didn’t have the execution on the fastball that we’ve seen out of him. The breaking stuff wasn’t as sharp. With a predominantly right-handed lineup, he left balls in the middle and they were able to square them up.”
Mitchell Dinger
Outfielder Cal Mitchell hit his second home run in as many games with a no-doubter into right field in the bottom of the fourth. Mitchell would also single and score in the second inning.
“Been able to stay balanced, attack some good pitches to hit, stay inside of them and hit ‘em well,” Mitchell said.
In the eighth inning, Mitchell hesitated coming in on a line drive, it got past him and allowed the fifth run to score.
“I made my initial read, pulled up, decided to dive,” Mitchell said. “In hindsight, close ballgame, couple outs, runners in scoring position. Should have stayed on my feet, blocked it and controlled some damage.”
Related
Swaggerty 1st
This year we’ve seen several rookies make their major league debut and another did after waiting through a rain delay Tuesday night. Travis Swaggerty, a 2018 first-round pick, admitted he was rattled waiting for the rain to end, but not really nervous during the game. He ended up 0 for 3.
“It’s really hard to put into words actually,” Swaggerty said. “It was amazing to get here after all my hard work and all the setbacks, it felt really good.”
The work wasn’t paying off early as the centerfielder was hitting .164 after April at AAA Indianapolis. The left-hand hitter got hot about a week into May and rode that to a .338 average for the month with a .403 OBP. He started June hitting a pair of homers and six for his first 12 before getting called up just before the game on Sunday.
“I think it was just getting at bats,” Swaggerty said. “Missing 2020 for COVID and then getting hurt so early last year, the plan for this year was just to try and get reps as quickly as possible. The lockout made it harder and my wife going to the hospital made it harder.”
Wife is fine and is back home being a mom to their infant child. It was a scare and a perspective-check for the 24-year-old.
“I think it told me that life is bigger than baseball,” Swaggerty said. “Just happy to be here.”
All of the starting outfielders were rookies on Tuesday and Shelton said it won’t be the last time you see a lot of rookies on the field.
AAA Watching
A couple just recalled from Indianapolis say that group is noticing what happened in the last week with the MLB team.
“A lot of those guys, they're hungry,” said pitcher Aaron Fletcher, recalled Tuesday from Indianapolis. “They're hungry down there. It is a younger AAA team. That was one of the first things I noticed. There's a lot of young guys with a lot of talent, and they're hungry to get up.”
“Obviously as you see, these guys coming up, they're good. Happy for them to contribute and have the success they're having right now.”
“We try to watch every game,” Swaggerty said of the AAA clubhouse. “Seeing our boys that we played with at the beginning of the season do their thing. It’s really cool to see and makes us want to do that more. It makes everybody down there hungry to get up here and do it along with their best friends.”
Related
Up Next
The end of the homestand with a 12:35 start on 100.1 FM, AM 1020 KDKA Wednesday with righty Mitch Keller (2-5, 5.77 ERA) against RHP Alex Faedo (1-2, 3.09 ERA). The North Shore Tavern pregame show at 11:30a.