Pittsburgh Pirates Manager Don Kelly did not panic outwards when his team endured a 26 game sequence not to score more than four points in a match.
“The guys introduced themselves early and did the work, continuing to trust the process,” he said, “and I think we see the results now.”
Pittsburgh hit 12 strokes on Saturday evening in a 5-0 road victory against the Padres in San Diego, giving Pirates a chance to win the series in the last Sunday match.
While Bailey Falter launched a laundering of two strokes on 6 1/3 sleeves, the three best pirate programming – Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds – combined for seven strokes and three products.
McCutchen hit a solo circuit, and Reynolds hit two points, giving him 14 in his last 13 games.
“We find means to score races,” said Kelly. “We did it again with both strokes. We continue to pass the stick.”
The result allowed Pittsburgh to take a sequence of 10 consecutive defeats against San Diego, dating from last August.
The left-hander Andrew Heaney (3-4, 3.41 ERA) hopes to lead the pirates to a serial victory. He worked for the last time on Monday evening on Monday evening, losing 5-0 in Arizona after granting eight sure and five points in five rounds with three balls on balls and two stick withdrawals.
Heaney has a 3-1 file with an MPM of 1.99 in six career games against the Padres, although the defeat took place on May 4. He was scored for eight strokes and four points in 3 2/3 rounds of a 4-0 defeat, with Xander Bogaerts dubbing in two points and singing in a third.
This has continued a trend of any career for both players. Bogaerts is 10 for 18 with two circuits and seven points produced against Heaney, a match that could give Bogaerts a boost to pump life in a dying number for his season. After being 0 for 3 on Saturday evening, the Bogaerts average of Bogaerts fell to .241.
Again, he was not alone. San Diego had only five shots in the first two games in the series, although he won a 3-2 victory on Friday evening.
As for the match on Saturday, “Tonight, tonight, it was clearly not the night that is representative of us,” said Padres manager Mike Shildt. “But preparation and work before the match are really good. We have (still) a chance to win our third consecutive series, which is good.”
The right-handed Randy Vasquez (3-4, 3.58 ERA) will take the mound on Sunday for San Diego, fresh out of its longest out of the year. He lasted 6 1/3 rounds on Monday in the victory of 4-3 and 11 sleeves of his team against Miami, granting six strokes and three points with a step and five withdrawals in the stick.
Vasquez faced the pirates on May 3 in Pittsburgh, moving for five rounds of the 2-1 victory of his team. He abandoned six strokes and five goals on bullets, but kept the damage to a race, by stirring three. Vasquez has no record in three games against the pirates, launching an MPM of 3.00.
– Field level media