PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pirates lost their second straight, Cubs took advantage of a few Mitch Keller walks to win 4-3 Sunday afternoon.
Kris Bryant singled home a run in the first followed by a ground out RBI from Joc Pederson. Mt. Lebanon's Ian Happ homered to make it 3-0 in the third.
Colin Moran hit the Pirates second home run of the season. Moran put a 3-2, 2-out pitch into the left field bleachers off what appeared to be an invincible Zach Davies. The Cubs righty was done after one more hitter giving up two runs over 5.2 innings with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts.
Bucs had a shot in the 8th, runners at first and third with one out and Gregory Polanco up. The big lefty grounded into a double play to end the inning.
After a good start to Spring, Polanco had only 2 hits in his last 23 at bats. He's carried that into the regular season going 1 for 8. The 29-year-old hit .153 in 2020.
"I think we need to make sure his timing gets back to where it was early in the spring," said manager Derek Shelton. "I think early in the spring he was closer to being on time. I think the consistency of that is starting to fluctuate a little bit."
Polanco isn't the only one struggling, Anthony Alford has yet to get a hit and Kevin Newman is hitting .231 after a torrid spring.
Keller outing
A fairly typical major league start by young righty Mitch Keller, Cubs got only two hits, but four walks and three runs allowed. Keller also struck out four.
"Continuing to throw more strikes," said manager Derek Shelton of his message to Keller. "I think early on we saw him not in the zone. He just has to get the ball in the strike zone more. Pitch count was high. I think he threw 31 in the first, then he threw 19 and then he threw 27. That's too many pitches in an inning we got to minimize that."
"I just got to attack the zone, fill it up more and get ahead in counts," Keller said, adding he felt good Sunday, just didn't have it. "That's what it comes down to. Throwing a lot of pitches, getting behind in counts, got to turn it around."
Crick returns, Crowe out
Reliever Kyle Crick passed all COVID-19 protocols and returned Sunday. The right-handed reliever threw one of the most adventurous scoreless innings in his career. Crick threw only eight strikes as part of 17 pitches, but got Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant to pop out to end the seventh inning.
Crick had been away due to the birth of their first child.
Pirates demoted reliever Wil Crowe, part of the return in the Josh Bell trade.
"We see Wil Crowe as a starting pitcher," said Pirates GM Ben Cherington during his show on the Pirates Radio Network and 93.7 The Fan. "Someone who has a chance to make some starts for us this year and compete for starts. We really want to make sure that he continues to stretch out and pitches on a starter's schedule."
"He made the team in part because we knew Kyle Crick would be absent. This gives us the chance to get Wil back with the alternate site group, get back to a starter's schedule. Make sure we get that pitch count built back up so that he's a starting pitching option for us before too long."
Crowe has been exclusively a starting pitcher in his career until his appearance Saturday out of the Pirates bullpen against the Cubs.
Up Next
JT Brubaker makes his first start of the season as the Bucs open the first of three at Cincinnati Monday night.
