Where Things Stand
Happy Tuesday. I hope that you all had a wonderful Labor Day yesterday. The Pirates helped the cause by beating the Brewers by a score of 4-2. It’s always fun watching the Bucs beat the Brewers. It’s even more fun watching them beat Corbin Burnes. He’s pretty much owned the Pirates during his career posting a 7-1 record with a 3.33 ERA coming into last night’s game. They managed to get to him for four runs on seven hits in six innings of work. Suwinski had a 2 for 4 night with a home run. Hayes was also 2 for 4 with a dinger. Cutch was 2 for 3 but was removed late in the game with Achilles tendon tightness. He’s had a rough year with injuries. He said after the game that he could’ve stayed in and they just wanted to be cautious, so hopefully he won’t miss any time. We all want to see him back out there chasing 300. Luis Ortiz got the start and was pretty good. You have to go all of the way back to June 23rd to find his last good start in the majors. He spent almost all of July and a good part of August in the minors. Even there, good starts weren’t common. Maybe this is a sign of some movement back in the right direction for him. Or just one of those random decent outings. Either way, it was nice. It was just an all-around good game. I’ll let Tyler and Doug break down all of the finer details for you.
Up Next
The second game of the series will be tonight at 6:35 P.M. EDT. The Brewers will look to Brandon Woodruff to take the mound while the Pirates pitcher is still listed as TBD. Woodruff is 3-1 with a 2.70 ERA this season. In his five starts since coming off of the IL, he’s 2-1 with a 3.45 ERA. The last time the Pirates faced him was back on August 6th and they managed to score two runs on him in five innings in a game that the Bucs won 4-1. For the Pirates, I think we should be to the Andre Jackson turn in the TBD rotation. Whether they go with him as the starter or use someone as the opener we will see. Nothing is listed as official as of the time of writing this, so I’m really just guessing. We all know how bad I am at that. Well, can the Pirates find a way to beat the Brewers again? Will Suwinski continue to hit? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Quick Hits
First off, from Cody at PGH Baseball Now we have an update on Roansy Contreras from Pirates GM Ben Cherington.
“Ro came in the other day and felt a little more stiffness than usual. Part of the reason we’re optimistic about it is it actually wasn’t the day after he pitched. It was a couple of days after he pitched, which tells us that maybe this happened from something else like a workout or something else.”
Cherington continued.
“Of course, he’s really important, so we don’t want to push it. [Contreras] is already playing catch, but we want to be cautious and really make sure that he’s not pitching until he’s really ready. We’re hopeful that he does pitch again this year. He’s certainly someone that is a part of our major league pitching picture, but first things first, we need to make sure he’s feeling good enough to get back on the mound and then go from there.”
Next up we have a roster move that took place yesterday. The Pirates designate Rob Zastryzny for assignment.
The Pirates announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Hunter Stratton from Triple-A Indianapolis, with left-hander Rob Zastryzny designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Stratton, 26, was a 16th-round pick of the Pirates in the 2017 draft and has been working his way up to the majors since then. He generally posts high strikeout totals but with lots of walks as well, and that has continued to be the case this year. In 56 1/3 Triple-A innings this season, he has a 3.99 earned run average, striking out 30.6% of batters faced while giving out free passes at a 12.8% clip. He will now get a chance to get major league hitters out, making his big league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Zastryzny, 31, is designated for assignment by the Bucs for the second time this year. He signed a minor league deal with the club in the offseason and cracked the Opening Day roster. He was designated for assignment in July and accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers. He was added back to the roster a couple of weeks ago but has lost his spot again. Between those two stints, he tossed 20 2/3 innings with a 4.79 ERA, 15.5% strikeout rate and 13.4% walk rate.
We’ll close things out today with a bit of prospect watching. Tsung-Che Chang hit two home runs yesterday for Altoona.
This weekend’s action in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ system was capped off by two home runs from Tsung-Che Cheng. Check out the recap of the best performers below, along with the game recaps for Sunday
Player of the Day
TSUNG-CHE CHENG, 2B, ALTOONA
Cheng homered twice for Altoona on Sunday. In the third inning, he hit a three run shot to put Altoona on the board. He added a solo homer in the ninth inning. Both home runs went to the pull side right field. One was on a high hanging breaking pitch, with the second coming on a 2-2 fastball down the middle.
Alright. That wraps us up for today. We’ll be back here again tomorrow looking at game two of the Brewers series. As always, #LetsGoBucs!