PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It wasn’t Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisolm, Paul Goldschmidt or the torpedo bats that sunk the Pirates for the Home Opener, it was a bottom three of the order in a 9-4 Yankees win.
CF Trent Grisham, LF Jaason Dominguez and Oswaldo Cabrera combined to get on base each of their first nine at bats driving in six runs and scoring three. It’s not that Judge wouldn’t get his, hitting a 106.7 mile-an-hour, two-run home run to right-center in the seventh inning.
After a stellar first start, Mitch Keller lasted only 3.2 innings, giving up eight hits, all seven runs earned, four walks and four strikeouts. He wasn’t helped by a pair of errors and another ruled a hit on a play that could have been made.
Related
"It was really uncharacteristic of what we saw in his first start and all throughout spring training," said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. "It just looked like his misses were really inconsistent. He was really efficient for two hitters in both of those innings, then things got away. It really, really hurt him."
“I just got to throw more strikes early in counts, that was the big thing,” Keller said. “Especially the slider and off-speed stuff, I just got to land it for strikes. That’s what it came down to, getting behind. A couple of walks, hit by pitches, then a couple of broken-bat singles, ground balls up the middle. It’s frustrating because it’s not like I was getting hit around the yard for doubles and homers. It was very controllable stuff.”
“That loss is completely on me.”
The Pirates dropped to 2-6 on the season scoring on a pair of home runs, a three-run shot by Ke’Bryan Hayes in the seventh and a solo home run by Bryan Reynolds in the third inning, his first of the year. Attendance for the first game, 36,893.
Up Next
Left-hander Bailey Falter (0-0, 3.00), who received a nice ovation for the Home Opener after being booed last year, starts against Yankees right-hander Marcus Stroman (0-0, 5.79 ERA) with first pitch at 4:05 Saturday and the North Shore Tavern Lead Off Show with Dan Zangrilli starts at 3p.