'I'm never going to forget tonight:' Crowe takes flight, earns first MLB win

ST. LOUIS -- Wil Crowe returned to the dugout having just surrendered the lead. He had been spotted a 4-1 advantage early, but on a pair of home runs by Nolan Arenado and Dylan Carlson, it had evaporated and turned into a tie game after four.

When he got to the bench, pitching coach Oscar Marin sat beside his struggling starter.

“Hey, the fifth is yours, and this is going to be big for your career,” Crowe said Marin told him. “This is a building block.”

Crowe admitted after the game that he was close to running on empty. He didn’t have his best stuff. 

But it was time to bear down.

“Alright, this is my inning,” Crowe was thinking after his talk with Marin. “Go get it. Throw your best stuff and get out of the fifth, let’s see where it goes from there.”

That ended up being Crowe’s best inning, getting two quick ground outs before finishing the frame with a diving curveball that shortstop Edmundo Sosa chased for strike three.

The bullpen provided four scoreless frames from there and Crowe earned his first big league win, as the Pirates made it two in a row against the Cardinals Friday night at Busch Stadium, winning 5-4.

“It [felt] like it was kind of a monkey on my back, and the first one to me felt like it was the hardest one,” Crowe said. “You don’t have to worry about trying to get the first win anymore, and it’s not in the back of your head anymore.”

Friday was Crowe’s 10th start of the season with the Pirates, and not one of the best. He allowed four runs on eight hits over his five innings, with the Cardinals making plenty of hard contact throughout the night. He had as many home runs allowed as strikeouts, and he had to rely on mostly a four-seam and curveball mix rather than his full five pitch arsenal.

It still counts.

“When you check off that box as a major league starter and get your first win, it’s extremely special,” Derek Shelton said.

Friday was a bit of reversal of how Crowe’s season has gone. In most of his starts, some strong innings were undermined by a handful of mistakes which defined the outing. This time, it was the strong finish that defined it.

Crowe has earned his 6.50 ERA so far, but that doesn’t exactly reflect some of the pitching he has done. There have been stretches where he has gotten into grooves and challenged hitters.

“His stuff is playing up,” Jacob Stallings told me before the game. “He’s impressing people.”

Part of that comes from him actually being in the Majors for most of the year and being able to build off previous outings. While the Pirates have found opportunities for some of their more Major-League ready pitching prospects to make spot starts, Crowe has gotten an extended look.

“This is a guy who we’re seeing grow each start in terms of things that we think are developmentally important,” Shelton said before the game. “And just taking different steps toward becoming a really effective Major League pitcher.”

That fifth inning Friday could be another step.

“I’m never going to forget tonight,” Crowe said. “5-4 game and I go out there in the fifth, and I don’t have my best stuff. But in the fifth, I did. I had some of my best stuff and I was able to go 1-2-3, give our guys a chance to win the game. We win the game on a great bullpen outing and that means a lot to me. It shows me that I can do a lot more in this game.”

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Half of the bullpen was wearing "Beware of Dogs" shirts before the game, a nod to unit's nickname.

They lived up to that monicker Friday. Clay Holmes got five outs as the first man up after Crowe, with Chasen Shreve finishing off the seventh. Kyle Crick stranded runners on the corners in the eighth, and Richard Rodriguez put the Cardinals down in order to earn his 10th save of the season.

"There was never a doubt in my mind watching those guys," Crowe said. "They compete, they bust their butts, they do it the right way and they’re really, really good."

Crick needed to create a play in the field to put up his zero. With a runner on second and one out, Paul Goldschmidt hit a comebacker up the middle that Crick caught right on his plant foot. That kept the ball in the infield, saving the run, but Crick took it one step further:

"It was really impressive," Shelton said. "Kick save, then to make the dive and throw, it was really important."

The medical team checked on Crick after the play, but he finished the frame.

• The Pirates recorded just one extra-base hit on the night -- a Kevin Newman hustle double -- but still managed to put up five runs.

Four of those tallies came in the third, including a pair on a two-out single by Phillip Evans that bounced out of the glove of right fielder Lars Nootbaar.

"We didn’t get any opportunities to get pitches to drive, so our guys did a good job of putting the ball in play and continuing to grind out at-bats," Shelton said.

Stallings had a pair of RBIs on the night, including the game-winning single in the fifth. He now has 33 RBIs, more than he had in 2019 and 2020 combined (31).

It all starts with the top of the order.

"Those guys put guys like me in good spots to hit," Stallings said. "They get on base, I have chances to hit them in and other guys do as well. It starts with them."

Ke'Bryan Hayes led the way Friday, going 2-for-4 with a walk, RBI and two runs scored. He has now reached base safely in 29 consecutive games, dating back to last year.

• This All-Star break, Crowe is planning to go back home and set up the nursery for his son. He says the game ball is probably the first thing going on that shelf.

As for the importance of a W in today's more analytically-driven game, it's a stat that isn't valued as highly as it once was, but...

“A win is a win, and you can’t take that away,” Crowe said.

THE ESSENTIALS

Boxscore
Scoreboard
Standings
Statistics

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

Adam Frazier, 2B
Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
Bryan Reynolds, CF
Jacob Stallings, C
Phillip Evans, RF
Erik González, 1B
Ben Gamel, LF
Kevin Newman, SS
Wil Crowe, P

And for Mike Shildt's Cardinals:

Dylan Carlson, CF
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Nolan Arenado, 3B
Tyler O'Neill, LF
Yadier Molina, C
Tommy Edman, 2B
Lars Nootbaar, RF
Edmundo Sosa, SS
Kwang Hyun Kim, P

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates will shoot to make it three in a row Saturday at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time. JT Brubaker (4-6, 3.77) will take the bump against Adam Wainwright (5-5, 3.74).

IN THE SYSTEM

• Mitch Keller’s first start in Indianapolis had some bumps, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits over three innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out two. While he did fill up the zone, the hits he allowed were over the heart of the plate.

James Marvel went five innings in relief to get the win in the Indians’ 7-6 victory over the Louisville Bats.

• Omar Cruz was terrific in his Altoona debut, allowing only one unearned run over his six innings. While he struck out just two, he did not walk a batter and allowed only five hits.

The Curve were still a strike away from losing, but Mason Martin played the hero with his ninth long ball of the season:

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THE CONTENT

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