PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – He was doing things early on that Quinn Priester said had keyed his success in AAA. The dream MLB debut faded into allowing seven runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings as Cleveland beat the Pirates 11-0 Monday.
Priester said on Sunday after being called up to the Taxi Squad, he made improvements when he stopped trying to strike everyone out and instead induced ground balls. The first seven outs of the game were grounders. He didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning, unfortunately for him it was after his first MLB walk and the pitch to Amed Rosario landed in the bullpen. The third run off him also came after a walk as Bo Naylor doubled into the North Side notch to make it 3-0. Then four more runs in the sixth including giving up his second home run.
“First three went really well, filling it up, getting ahead early,” Priester said. “Started to fall behind guys and then really fight back into counts but against good hitters need to be a little bit better for sure.”
“First three innings put the ball on the ground,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “Used the sinker and kept the ball down in the zone. Both walks came back to hurt him. It looked like it flattened out a little bit and got up in the zone. If you stay up in the zone, especially to left-handed hitters, they are going to get hit.”
Shelton said he wasn’t concerned that the velocity only was in the mid-90s. He said it was more about the command than the speed of the pitches.
Priester isn’t the only pitcher in the Bucs rotation who struggled early in his career, Mitch Keller gave up six runs in four innings in his MLB debut and after four starts his rookie season in 2005, Rich Hill had an 8.57 ERA.
“Just getting the feel, feeling that confidence, feeling the game situation and learning,” Priester said. “Ultimately, might have failed a little bit tonight but those failures are going to push me to get better and give me things to work on. I will get better at those things for sure.”
Been awhile
It had been since October 3, 1943 that the Pirates had the starting pitcher and catcher making their MLB debuts in the same game, Cookie Cuccurullo was the picher and Hank Camelli caught. It had been nearly five years since it happened for any team (August, 2018, Toronto Blue Jays-Sean Reid-Foley and Danny Jansen) and six years since the Reds started Tyler Mahle and Chad Wallach against the Pirates in August of 2017.
Monday marked the first time in Major League history that a starting pitcher-catcher combo were both born in the year 2000 or later.
Endy Rodriguez would go 0 for 4 with three strikeouts saying he saw the ball well, felt good and ‘tomorrow is another day’.
Youthful lineup
Six of the Pirates hitters (Jack Suwinski, Henry Davis, Jared Triolo, Rodriguez, Nick Gonzales, Liover Peguero) in Monday’s lineup combined for 256 career games compare that to Andrew McCutchen playing in career game 1,971 against Cleveland.
“That’s the way we are going to be moving forward, at least until we get healthy,” Shelton said. “We are going to have a lot of young guys on the field. There will be growing pains and bumps. We just have to grind through them.”
3 more signed
Pirates now have signed seven players from last week’s MLB Draft-third round pick, 3B Garret Forrester (Oregon St.), RHP Austin Strickland (Kentucky) from the eighth round, and 13th round 2B Charles McAdoo (San Jose State).
Up Next
All-Star Mitch Keller makes his second-half debut against LHP Logan Allen (3-2, 3.47 ERA) with Dan Zangrilli hosting the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show at 6p on 93.7 The Fan and then first pitch at 7:05p.