Buehler Tames Bucs, LA Bullpen Survives In 5-3 Dodger Victory

Today’s Game: Some rain, thunder and lightening rolled in about an hour before game time, delaying the start by 30 minutes. JT Brubaker spun a clean first. After an out, Walker Buehler challenged Ke’Bryan Hayes with high heat before dropping one into the strike zone. Key banged it over the Clemente Wall, tucking it just inside the pole. The homer passed its review, but Young Hayes clearly missed first base (S/O to The Athletic) during his trot and was ruled out after a challenge, as both he and 1B coach Tarrik Brock were busy ball-watching. LA led off with a single in the second, then nothing else but a couple of K. Redbeard opened with a rap, followed by a two-out error and walk, but Bru’s bouncer left the trio aboard. Big Blue’s Buehler singled with an out in the third, followed by two more whiffs. Key singled with one away and his bad day continued when he was thrown out trying to tag to second when his hand was brushed off the base. Both sides went quietly in the fourth.

A Gavin Lux single went through Gregory Polanco with an out in the fifth, sending Lux to third. A double brought him home, and a two-out triple made it 2-0 with both balls just eluding a diving Bryan Reynolds in center. That brought in Chasen Shreve, who surrendered a grounder through the shift to make it 3-0. It was 1-2-3 for the Pirates. Chris Stratton gave up a two-run dinger to Chris Taylor in the sixth to dig the hole deeper. The Bucs went down in order. Buehler opened with his second hit in the seventh but was mopped up by a 5-4-3 DP. A knock and a walk upped the pressure again before a bouncer ended it. The Corsairs went three up, three down; they haven’t had a runner since the third. Duane Underwood tossed a clean eighth. Joe Kelly took over for Buehler and Phil Evans snapped the streak with a rap, scoring on Adam Frazier’s two-out two-bagger. Underwood bopped a batter in the ninth, but two smoked outs got him through the frame. B-Rey sent the first pitch from Nate Jones into the bullpen, and two strikeouts later, pinch-hitter Michael Perez banged one over the fence in right center. Kenley Jansen was waved on and ended it with a three-pitch whiff.

Well, the Dodger bullpen is shaky, as advertised. Buehler is not shaky, and the Bucs couldn’t solve him. But the diff was that Big Blue made just about all their plays while the Pirates came up a step short a couple of times too often.

Notes:

• The Pirates had just six hits; no one reached base twice.
• Walker Buehler is now unbeaten in his last 21 starts. His last defeat was in September of 2019 against the Rox.
• The attendance was 9,047.
• Indy C Andrew Susac and OF Dustin Fowler have both been placed on the seven-day IL by Indy; no word on their injuries yet. Altoona’s 2B Ji-Hwan Bae injured his knee after a collision; he was taken out of the game eventually and will be evaluated.
• Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic shared the following: “Baseball America updated its top 100 prospects list. Pirates players listed: No. 9 Ke’Bryan Hayes; No. 42 Oneil Cruz; No. 43 Nick Gonzales; No. 63 Quinn Priester; No. 92 Liover Peguero.” (BA’s list is behind a paywall).

Tomorrow’s Game: The game starts at 7:05 and will be on AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. Tyler Anderson bumps heads with Tony “Goose” Gonsolin.