The Pirates had a day of draft news and trade machinations (Tyler Anderson apparently is going to be a Mariner), but in the end they had to play a game. That ended kinda badly, in a 9-0 loss to Milwaukee.
With Tyler Anderson’s status up in the air, the Pirates named Luis Oviedo as the late-hour stand-in. It was Oviedo’s first major league start and we found out what we knew all along: that Oviedo isn’t ready for the majors. When the Pirates selected him in the Rule 5 draft, he’d never pitched above low class A. That hasn’t changed much this year, as Oviedo, before today, had logged only 27.2 IP between AAA and the majors.
Things started off well, as Oviedo fanned the game’s first batter. On the next batter, though, Kevin Newman committed his second error of the year and Omar Narvaez then went deep. The inning just got worse after that as Oviedo couldn’t find the plate. In the second, Oviedo didn’t retire anybody. He left with three runs in and two on base, and Nick Mears let the latter runs get driven in by a single on his first pitch. Oviedo struggled to throw strikes, with just 28 in 55 pitches. He finished with eighth runs allowed, six earned, in one-plus innings.
The Pirates’ bullpen did their usual good job of locking the barn door. Mears ultimately logged two scoreless innings, although he didn’t fill the strike zone, either. Cody Ponce put up five shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk. Kyle Keller gave up a solo home run to Rowdy Tellez in the top of the ninth.
The offense didn’t exactly open the post-Frazier era in fine fashion. They managed just four hits, all singles, two each by Ben Gamel and Jacob Stallings. Excitement was somewhat lacking.
