The Pirates picked up their second straight win on Monday, and they also picked up a couple of new Buccos on the day before the trade deadline. Joe Block has the story of the Pirates’ win in Houston.
Manager Derek Shelton says the Pirates have had to be gritty in their wins Sunday over the Diamondbacks and last night against the Astros.
Paul Skenes threw 101 pitches in his six innings on the mound. Shelton says he had to battle against a tough Astros lineup.
Shelton loved the way catcher Yasmani Grandal worked with Skenes.
The Astros threw a bullpen game after original starter Jake Bloss was traded to Toronto earlier in the day. Tayler Scott threw the first three innings and was perfect, and they still had a perfect game going into the sixth, when Grandal hit a home run for the Bucs.
The win may have been costly for the Pirates. Rowdy Tellez returned to the lineup but Nick Gonzalez is out long term with a groin injury and last night Joshua Palacios was removed from the game with a tweaked hamstring and Ji Hwan Bae left with a sore knee. Before the game, the Pirates activated Bryan Reynolds from the bereavement list and sent Jack Suwinski and his .182 batting average to Indianapolis.
For the second game of the series tonight, the Pirates will start left-hander Bailey Falter [4-7, 4.08 ERA] against Astros righty Hunter Brown [9-6, 4.00 ERA]. Falter is making his return from the injured list, where he’d been since July 7th suffering from triceps tendinitis. It’s a 7:45 airtime, 8:10 first pitch on WCCS.
General manager Ben Cherington made two trades yesterday. He acquired infielder/outfielder Nick Yorke from the Red Sox for pitcher Quinn Priester. Yorke was the Bosox first round draft pick in 2020. Priester was taken in the first round by the Pirates in 2019. This year, Yorke started in Double-A and was promoted to Triple-A Worcester. Overall, he hit .278 with 10 home runs for the two teams, but in Triple A, he was batting .310 with six home runs, eight doubles and 19 RBIs in 38 games.
Cherington also acquired left-handed relief pitcher Jalen Beeks from the Rockies for Altoona reliever Luis Peralta. Beeks is 6-4 with a 4.74 ERA in 45 appearances for the Rockies this year. He’s spent most of his career with the Tampa Bay Rays. Peralta was recently promoted to Altoona after spending most of the year with High-A Greensboro. He’s a combined 4-0 with a 0.91 ERA this season.
The MLB trade deadline is 6 PM tonight.
The Pirates have signed second round draft choice Wyatt Sanford, a high school shortstop from Texas. That makes 16 of 21 picks now signed, with the number one pick, infielder/outfielder Konnor Griffin, still unsigned. It’s coming down to the wire…teams have until 5 PM on Thursday to sign draft choices before they drop into next year’s pool.
Comments