The Pittsburgh Pirates get an opportunity to continue their run of spoiling other teams’ postseason hopes when they open a three-game road series against the San Francisco Giants on Monday night.
The Pirates, the last-place club in the National League Central, hit rock bottom last Sunday when they were beaten for the third time in a row at home by the team with the fewest wins in the American League, the Chicago White Sox.
But with Tommy Pham going 9-for-20, Spencer Horwitz driving in seven runs and the bullpen coming up big to close out three shutout victories, Pittsburgh rebounded with three straight wins over the first-place Detroit Tigers before taking two of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks, one of the Giants’ rivals in the NL playoff race.
The Pirates are on such a nice run, at least one player has changed his mindset from possibly getting traded before Friday’s deadline to who might join the team to fuel an even better finishing flurry.
“It’s something I have no control over,” center fielder Oneil Cruz insisted in front of his locker after Sunday’s win. “Whoever comes to help us win, it’s welcome. We’ll do our best to welcome him in a good way.”
One of the most popular Pirates in trade rumors will get another showcase opportunity when right-hander Mitch Keller (4-10, 3.53 ERA) takes the mound in the series opener in San Francisco.
The 29-year-old stood at 1-9 with a 4.15 ERA on June 10 before finding a rhythm that has seen him go 3-1 with a 2.32 ERA in his last seven starts. He contributed to the Pirates’ just-completed big week with six innings of three-run ball in an 8-5 win over the Tigers last Tuesday.
Keller will be making his fifth career start against the Giants, against whom he has gone 1-2 with a 4.91 ERA in 22 innings over their first four head-to-heads.
One day after splitting pitching chores among seven guys in a bullpen game, the Giants will promote Carson Whisenhunt from Triple-A Sacramento to oppose Keller in his big-league debut.
The 24-year-old left-hander has started 18 games for Sacramento this season, going 8-5 with a 4.42 ERA, 28 walks and 86 strikeouts in 97 2/3 innings.
The Giants would love to give their new teammate more support than their pitchers got in the three-game sweep to the New York Mets, when San Francisco totaled just five runs. The Giants did not get a hit in 23 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the series.
With an eye on adding more firepower to the lineup, Giants manager Bob Melvin gave Rafael Devers two starts at first base against the Mets. That allowed Wilmer Flores, San Francisco’s most productive hitter in the first half of the season, to get nine at-bats in the series — eight as a DH, one as a pinch hitter — during which he had three hits.
But Devers had a nightmarish night in the field in Saturday’s loss, one from which Melvin took a surprisingly optimistic view when asked by reporters to assess the performance after the game.
“I’m glad he got a bunch of balls (in the game),” Melvin insisted. “The more he gets like that, the more in-between plays and plays where he’s got to make a decision on whether he’s covering first or going to get the ball … all of those things are going to be good for him at the end of the day.”
The clubs will meet in a rematch next week in Pittsburgh, perhaps with some different personnel after the trade deadline.