PITTSBURGH — All over the infield they bounced, to second base and third, a line drive to shortstop and a ball Quinn Priester flipped over to first for an out. Through three innings of his MLB debut, Priester was perfect, cruising along by inducing soft contact. But what looked like a storybook night quickly and decidedly took a turn for the worse.
After the 22-year-old right-hander looked so good through three innings, the Cleveland Guardians adjusted to Priester the second and third times through the order, exploding for five-extra base hits during a three-inning stretch and cruising to an 11-0 victory against the Pirates on Monday at PNC Park.
In an odd way, the debut almost mirrored how the Pirates season has played out thus far, their 20-8 start now juxtaposed with a 21-45 (.318) record in their past 66 games.
Despite the excitement that surrounded the MLB debuts of Priester and Endy Rodriguez, along with the return of Liover Peguero, this eventually devolved one of the uglier games of the year. Pittsburgh was shut out for the 11th time this season, the fifth in the past month.
Of the Pirates’ 12 strikeouts, half came with a hitter looking at a called third strike.
The extended stretches of losing have torpedoed any chances the Pirates might’ve had at the postseason. They’ve turned over playing time to the kids, with seven prospects promoted in the past month.
One of those guys, Rodriguez, made the final out of the game to cap an 0-for-4 night with three strikeouts.
It’s obviously not a large enough sample size to learn anything, but it did result in one of the more lopsided losses of the season for the Pirates, who saw their record drop to 41-53 after losing for the 11th time in 13 tries this month, including the past four out of the All-Star break.
The trouble started in the fourth inning, when Priester walked the leadoff man, left fielder Steven Kwan, and allowed a two-run homer to shortstop Amed Rosario. It actually didn’t come on a terrible pitch: a 1-1 slider located down-and-in that Rosario hit into the bullpens.
Catcher Bo Naylor upped Cleveland’s lead to 3-0 with his double in the fifth hinting, this coming on a sinker low in the zone that he drove the opposite way to the North Side Notch.
Third baseman Jose Ramirez and first baseman Josh Naylor roped back-to-back doubles in the sixth, with Ramirez crushing a 2-0 sinker off the Clemente Wall and Naylor looping a low curve into the right-field corner.
The knockout punch came next. Second baseman Andres Gimenez sat fastball, got one and ripped a Priester four-seamer on a line at 106.7 into the first row of seats above the Clemente Wall for a two-run lead and a 7-0 Guardians advantage.
Josh Naylor homered in the seventh to make it a 9-0 game, and left fielder Steven Kwan delivered an RBI-single in the eighth for a 10-0 Guardians lead.
ON THE MOUND
Giving up seven earned runs in 5 1/3 innings obviously isn’t going to work, although there were a couple things Priester did well. He threw a bunch of strikes early, and his sinker did occasionally look solid.
At the same time, he became overly reliant on it and also threw his curveball just 11 times. That’s not enough.
It was clear later on that Guardians were sitting on certain pitches, and Priester — it’s understandable considering this was his debut — never made much of an adjustment.
His first strikeout came in the fifth inning, on a gorgeous curveball thrown low in the zone to former Pirate Josh Bell.
AT THE PLATE
So much for the Guardians suffering from some sort of power outage. Despite beginning Monday’s game with just 64 home runs — 18 fewer than anyone else — Cleveland thrived against the Pirates via the long ball. Six of the nine runs were scored on two-run homers, with Rosario, Gimenez and Josh Naylor collecting them.
Facing the Guardians’ bullpen, the Pirates endured another sleepy night at the plate. There were three strikeouts looking. Pittsburgh also went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, dropping them to 2 for 9 since the All-Star break.
The Pirates finished with just two extra-base hits: a double from Andrew McCutchen in the first inning and another two-bagger courtesy of Nick Gonzales in the fifth. Pittsburgh has now been held to four or fewer runs in the past nine games.
Aside from Rodriguez, Peguero, in his second MLB game, went 0 for 3 with a pair of strikeouts.
UP NEXT
Mitch Keller will make his first start after the All-Star break, The right-handler’s 129 strikeouts before the All-Star break ranks as the third-most in team history.
