The Pittsburgh Pirates’ offense has found life of late. Now, after pounding out a big lead and holding it in the opener of the team’s three-game set against the visiting Atlanta Braves on Friday, the Pirates will look to build on the momentum in the middle contest of the series.
The Pirates led 11-0 against the Braves before the visitors scored five times in the eighth inning in an 11-5 win. It was a welcome result for the Pirates after consecutive losses to the San Francisco Giants in which Pittsburgh held five- and four-run advantages, respectively.
“When you walk away from games that you lose at the end of games, I don’t know how it feels to everyone else, but those seem to hurt a little bit more than normal ones,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I was really proud of the group that they came back and bounced back.”
The 11 runs were a season high for Pittsburgh, which has started to produce at the plate lately.
Nick Gonzales has been a part of the team’s recent surge. The 24-year-old, who was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis on May 9, is riding a five-game hitting streak, going 8-for-20 (.400 average) while driving in seven runs.
“Hitting is very contagious,” said Gonzales, who went 2-for-3 with four RBIs on Friday. “One-through-nine swinging the bat well, good things are going to happen.”
Mitch Keller (5-3, 3.84 ERA) is slated to go for the Pirates on Saturday. He’s delivered quality efforts in each of his three starts in May, averaging seven innings per outing, going 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA. But it will be a tough matchup for the right-hander, who is 0-3 with a 9.97 ERA in five career starts against the Braves, allowing 29 runs on 46 hits with 21 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings.
The Braves, meanwhile, will hope for a better night on the mound in the rematch with their pitching depth suddenly being tested.
Manager Brian Snitker learned before the game Friday that AJ Smith-Shawver could be out for two months with an oblique strain. The right-hander, Atlanta’s top prospect, felt some pain in the third inning Thursday but managed to toss a scoreless 4 1/3 innings in his season debut.
Already without Spencer Strider for the season, the Braves optioned Bryce Elder to Triple-A Gwinnett on Thursday after he struggled in a 9-1 loss to the San Diego Padres on May 19.
“It’s never perfect and it’s never easy,” Snitker said. “We’ll just keep battling our way through it, figure it out, and then make it work.”
Reynaldo Lopez (2-1, 1.54 ERA), who will start for Atlanta on Saturday, has been solid in his eight starts this season. He’s 1-1 with a 4.86 ERA in five career appearances (two starts) against the Pirates, giving up nine runs on 14 hits and striking out 14.
Three of the Braves’ past six defeats have been blowouts, with Atlanta allowing at least seven runs in those contests.
–Field Level Media
