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Pirates Discussion: Crawfords Celebration

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Roansy Contreras kept up his domination of playoff contenders.

On Friday evening Contreras held the St. Louis Cardinals to only one run over 5.1 innings. He used his usual heavy Fastball-Slider throwing 44 Fastballs and 31 Sliders but mixed in 21 Curveballs. The 22% Curveball usage was his highest since July 1st. Of the 31 Sliders he threw, he generated 18 swings with 6 whiffs that were his only whiffs on the evening. Contreras allowed four hits and two walks on the night with only one strikeout. He generated nine groundouts to five flyouts along with an average exit velocity of 86.7 MPH (per Baseball Savant) that has lately seen a trend downwards after sitting above 90 MPH on the year.

The offense showed up Friday. In the second inning Ben Gamel connected on a Changeup that he hit 418 FT to center field for his eighth homerun of the season to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 1-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, Oneil Cruz — whose bat has been on fire in the leadoff spot — hit his third triple for the Pirates scoring Cal Mitchell and Jason Delay. Bryan Reynolds knocked in Cruz for a 4-0 lead.

The Cardinals lead off the sixth inning with a double and then a single to put runners on second and third with no outs. Corey Dickerson hit into a ground out, scoring a run, before Tyler O’Neill walked ending Contreras’ night. Manny Banuelos entered to originally face LH batter and rookie Alec Burleson, but Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol opted to bring in RH pinch hitter Albert Pujols. Banuelos uncovered that Pujols is in fact NOT a machine by getting him to hit into a double play and end the inning with a 4-1 lead intact.

Banuelos came back out for the seventh inning but would lead with a runner on first with two outs for Chase De Jong. De Jong gave up a RBI double to the first batter he faced and then struck out Paul Goldschmidt swinging to keep a 4-2 lead.

As the offense does occasionally (and by occasionally I mean rarely), they decided to add on in the 8th. Michael Chavis came up with runners on first and second, one out, and hit a two-run triple. Cal Mitchell — who went 3-for-3  with a walk on the night — followed with a RBI single before leaving for pinch runner Greg Allen. With two outs Allen moved to 2B on a wild pitch and then scored on a Cruz single to make it 8-2. Cruz ended the night 3-for-5 and raising his OPS to 730, falling just a HR shy of the cycle, three days after he fell just a triple shy of the cycle against the New York Mets.

Robert Stephenson came on for the ninth and finished off the game to seal Roansy Contreras’ fifth win of the season, and fourth as a starter tying Mitch Keller. Stephenson made quick work setting down the Cardinals’ hitter in order on only 13 pitches with one strikeout.

Cardinals @ Pirates

Time: 7:35 PM EST

Pirates Starter: JT Brubaker (3-11, 4.35)

Cardinals Starter: Jack Flaherty (0-1, 4.15)

Brubaker Notes: This will be JT Brubaker’s 26th start of the season and looking to keep pace with Keller and Contreras in SP wins. After getting knocked around by the Atlanta Braves, Brubaker was able to get back on track against the Toronto Blue Jays with two earned runs in 5.1 innings. With 132.1 IP on the season, Brubaker is already at his second highest total season innings total short of just of 2018 when he threw 154 IP.

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Bucs'N'Pucks (Jeff Reed)
Bucs'N'Pucks (Jeff Reed)
Raised in Cranberry Twp, PA, Jeff attended Kent State University and worked in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, before moving to New Orleans in September of 2012. His background is as an Engineering Designer, but he has always had a near unhealthy passion for Pittsburgh sports. Hockey and Baseball are his 1A and 1B, combined with his mathematical background, it's led to Jeff's desire in diving into analytics. Jeff is known as Bucs'N'Pucks in the comments, and began writing for Pirates Prospects in 2022 after contributing so many useful bits of information in the comment section.

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