PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - In his first game at PNC Park, the hometown kid Cole Young hit the go-ahead home run off Mitch Keller in the top of the 7th inning and the Mariners beat the Pirates 3-2 Tuesday night at PNC Park.
"Love that they make it (to the MLB) but don't want him to do that against us. Obviously that was a big swing from Cole there but don't like that at PNC," said Don Kelly.
The Pirates were leading 2-0 after Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd and in the bottom of the 3rd Nick Gonzales reached on an infield single. J.P Crawford's throw to first base was wide and Brandon Lowe scored.
"I thought our approach early on was really good. We found a way to get guys in scoring position and capitalize Ozuna with a big base hit there early. Got two runs across and had a chance to score more, we need to add on when we have that opportunity."
Seattle chipped away with a Cal Raleigh solo home run in the top of the 4th inning to cut the Pirates lead to 2-1.
Keller ran into trouble in the 7th inning. Luke Raley lined a hard hit ball to center field and turned on the jets to leg out a single into a double. Then Young hit the go-ahead home run.
"I thought he threw the ball really well," said Kelly. "The two home runs he gave up, but outside of that he pitched really effectively, threw strikes, seemed like all of his pitches were working pretty well."
Keller had a career high 11 flyouts.
"Maybe the pitch mix, I know he threw some sinkers, some cutters in there too that would maybe get some fly balls. He had some big ground balls too. The double play early from Young, induced some soft contact there," said Kelly.
George Kirby went 6 innings, allowed 2 runs (1 earned) on 8 hits, struck out 5 and walked 2. Seattle's bullpen slammed the door on the Pirates. They pitched 3 scoreless innings. Closer Andrés Muñoz struck out the side in the bottom of the 9th.
Keller finished the day pitching 6+ innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits, he punched out 4 and walked 1. Mason Montgomery, Isaac Mattson and Dennis Santana all threw scoreless innings and gave up just one hit.
"Mattson pitched really well, Santana had an outlier in Colorado, he's been throwing the ball better as of late. I thought Montgomery was sharp tonight. Just starting to get those guys back to what they're capable of doing."
The Pirates were 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 9 on base.
"It's been a recurring theme, when we've been good and scored a lot of runs like the last game in Colorado, we get the big base hit. Then we've had these chances to score and don't get the base hit with runners in scoring position. The golden ones are with two outs when you can get a base hit with runners in scoring position. When we haven't scored and ultimately those come in the losses."
The Pirates are a game under .500 with the loss (39-40). They'll send Braxton Ashcraft (6-3, 3.18) against Bryan Woo (6-5, 3.94) at 6:40 from PNC Park.
In his first game at PNC Park, the hometown kid Cole Young hit the go-ahead home run off Mitch Keller in the top of the 7th inning.
In his first game at PNC Park, the hometown kid Cole Young hit the go-ahead home run off Mitch Keller in the top of the 7th inning.
