DETROIT — The Pirates were certainly in need of a get-right game after the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers. Errors plagued them in that one, and the offense went quiet.
In the late afternoon game, the bats sprung to life. That included outfielders Bryan Reynolds, who continues to look more and more like the 2021 version of himself, outfielder Ben Gamel, who had an enormous offensive day and designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach, who pummeled a ninth-inning 385 feet to right field to seal a 7-2 Pirates victory, just the second in their last eight games.
In terms of importance for the Pirates’ season as a whole, Reynolds’ resurgence was most vital. He entered Wednesday hitting just .203 on the season, and that was up after a 1-for-4 game against the San Diego Padres on Sunday. But Reynolds asserted himself quickly, ripping a single to dead center in the first inning of the first game.
In the second game, he turned it on more convincingly. Reynolds doubled in the fifth inning, a lined shot to the gap in right center, then doubled again in the seventh, a well-placed fly ball down the left-field line. Not only did it bump his average up to .217 on the season, up 27 points since Apr. 24, but it also marked the first time this season a Pirate hitter has had multiple doubles in the same game.
In terms of sheer volume, though, Gamel had the most impressive day at the plate. He finished 5 for 8 in total with a triple, a double, three singles, three RBIs and a run scored.
For all of the offensive firepower, though, the Pirates pitched themselves in and out of trouble as well. Left-hander José Quintana began things, lasting five innings, allowing the only two runs the Tigers plated. Then, surprisingly, right-hander Zack Thompson relieved him, pitching a scoreless inning to set up the one-two punch of Chris Stratton and David Bednar to finish things off.
In the first game, mistakes were the name of the game, with two unlikely Pirates making costly errors. One of them, was third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes.
After committing just four errors in 119 career games prior to this year, Hayes has committed three in his first 22 games this season. None were as costly as the one he made Wednesday in a 3-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
With two outs in the fifth inning, the Tigers had runners on second and third. One of those runners got on due to an error from shortstop Cole Tucker, normally sure-handed in his own right. Nonetheless, only one run had scored, and the Pirates were hanging on to a one-run lead.
Tigers shortstop Javier Baez stepped up and chopped a ball on a few hops toward Hayes, a routine play in a key moment. But Hayes either took his eye off the ball or completely misread the hop, letting it fly right by his glove and into shallow left field. Two runs scored, giving the Tigers a lead they would never relinquish. With that, the Pirates lost despite allowing just three hits and no earned runs. Tucker and Hayes combined to give it away.
As can be assumed by those stats, the errors wasted what was an otherwise well-pitched effort, with left-hander Dillon Peters the highlight. Peters gave the Pirates his longest outing of the year, tossing 3 1/3 scoreless frames to start the game.
Peters has now begun the season with 16 2/3 shutout frames over eight appearances. That is not only the longest active scoreless streak in MLB, but it is the longest scoreless streak to start a season for the Pirates since Paul Wagner tossed 17 1/3 no-run innings at the start of the 1996 season. Additionally, Peters joins Rod Beck (San Francisco Giants, 1992), Eric Show (San Diego Padres, 1982) and Ted Abernathy (Chicago Cubs, 1969), as the only three pitchers in MLB history to begin a season with eight scoreless appearances totaling at least 16 2/3 innings.
Peters actually allowed a hit Wednesday, just the second he’s given up this season. Put simply, he is dealing, perhaps the best weapon on the Pirates’ staff at the moment.
“I feel good,” Peters said. “I'm going to take the ball whenever they tell me I need to throw or they're expecting me to go out there and get my job done. However long that is, whenever that is, I'll be ready.”
Right-hander Bryse Wilson followed Peters up, lasting 3 2/3 innings in his own right. The Tigers mustered just two hits and a walk against him, and he sat down six via strikeout. Unfortunately for him, he was on the mound during the fifth inning, when a leadoff double was compounded by Tucker’s error to get Wilson into trouble. Then, Hayes’ calamity put the Pirates in the dirt, sending them to a sixth loss in their last seven games.
The game was the first of a doubleheader in Detroit after Tuesday’s game was postponed by weather.
