PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was such a smooth road through three innings and then the potholes for Quinn Priester as the Angels even the series with a 9-0 win over the Pirates Tuesday night.
Priester gave up only a single after three innings in a scoreless game, then came troubles in the fourth. A leadoff double by Mickey Moniak, a one-out walk, then a 403-foot homer to left by Kevin Pillar, his first of two on the night. After stranding a few to end the inning and getting the first out of the fifth, a Priester error set the table for two more runs to score before he was pulled in favor of Roansy Contreras.
“I think the slider lost a little bit of its shape and then he threw a couple of sinkers that really didn’t sink and they ended up getting hit really hard,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton.
“I just think a little too much focus on throwing strikes,” Priester said. “Certainly that is the goal. That’s what you want to do every time but it’s also not great to hyper-focus on it. Just go out there and keep continuing to move smoothly and we probably avoid a lot of that.”
The 2019 first-round pick gave up five runs, three earned in 4.2 innings allowing seven hits, two walks and a strikeout in his fourth MLB outing of the season. LA pounded out 15 hits for just the Angels third win in its last 13 games.
“We have to look at the three innings where his stuff is really good and also assess the last two innings where he stuff wasn’t sharp,” Shelton said. “It’s going to be the final piece of the development of a major league pitcher.”
“Pitching in the big leagues is hard and there’s certain hurdles you have to get over. We still have some of those tasks or hurdles with Quinn. He will get there. This kid is going to be a good major league starter.”
“My thing is ... just on to the next one,” Priester said. “I don’t have a non-swear word, but screw it and on to the next one. It’s definitely difficult to do as are a lot of things in this game. That’s something that I need to get better at.”
No offense
Along with only three hits on the night (one was close to an error, but ruled a hit), the Pirates got one runner to second base, a one-out double by Connor Joe in the seventh inning. Edward Olivares had a leadoff single in the second inning and erased on a double play and Andrew McCutchen with a two-out single in the third.
“Change-up, slider, execution of the fastball to both sides, but the slider was good,” Shelton said of Angels starter Patrick Sandoval, who struck out seven in seven innings. “He did a really good job throwing it, not only backdoor to our right-handers, but was able to back-foot it also.”
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AAA Tracker
Several names to watch with Triple A Indianapolis including the first game for Henry Davis in the minors this year.
· Davis 0-3, hit by pitch
· Nick Gonzales 2-4, 4th home run, 2 RBI (19 on season), average .364, OPS 1.043
· Jake Lamb 1-3, walk, .400 average, OPS 1.085
· Ji Hwan Bae 0-4, 2 strikeouts .350 average, .956 OPS
· Liover Peguero 1-4, strikeout, .304 average, .771 OPS
· Eric Lauer 4.1 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts
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Up Next
The first left-handed starter for the Pirates and first right-handed starter for the Angels in the final game of the series on Wednesday afternoon. Jose Soriano (1-4, 3.77 ERA) against Martin Perez (1-2, 3.15 ERA) as Paul Alexander hosts the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show on 100.1 FM and AM 1020 KDKA at 11:35a with first pitch at 12:35p