LOS ANGELES -- It started with a conversation with Wil Crowe in San Diego Sunday. One where he insisted, despite the Pirates' record, they were a "good f---ing team."
Two days later, Crowe put the Dodgers down in order to pick up a save in Dodgers Stadium, clinching a 5-3 Pirates win Tuesday, their second straight over the preseason World Series contender.
"Man, we’re just playing good ball," Crowe said Tuesday. "We don’t look at it as the Dodgers. We look at it as another team that we get the opportunity to go out and play baseball against and try to win a game. When we’ve played ‘em, we’ve played very well."
Playing well might be an understatement. After failing to win a game against the Dodgers from 2017-2021, the Pirates have won four of their five contests against them this season.
"It is some of the best games we’ve played," Derek Shelton said. "I wish I could tell you why that is. We’ve really been consistent against a really good team."
Crowe knows what it is. He said it Sunday.
"That’s what we’re capable of," Crowe said. "We’re capable of beating anybody in this league. As long as we strap it on every day and play the way we’ve been playing, we’re gonna have a good chance to beat whoever we’re playing."
It was another complete team win, getting contributions from just about everyone. Michael Chavis and Tucupita Marcano quickly got the Pirates on the board with homers in the first two innings. Crowe, Duane Underwood Jr. and Chris Stratton picked up the bullpen knowing that David Bednar was unavailable after his 50 pitch outing Monday.
In the field, protecting a one-run lead in the seventh, Jack Suwinski started off the seventh by running down a gap shot by Freddie Freeman before spinning and throwing him out at second:
"I think that was the play of the game," Shelton said.
It was needed to win. A good baseball play at a pivotal moment.
People will turn to the Pirates' record and obvious holes in the roster. That cannot be denied. Some of those holes could be filled with the promotion of more prospects like Oneil Cruz. This roster, let alone the actual team, is not a finished product.
But what about this thought, on behalf of Crowe and his teammates: Truly bad teams don't win two series against the Dodgers.
GETTY
Wil Crowe celebrates with Tyler Heineman after getting the save.
• Mitch Keller has a new pitch. And he threw it often Tuesday.
After his start against the Reds on May 13, he, the coaching staff and the people at Tread Athletics, where he worked out this offseason, started working on developing a sinker. He tried it out that next outing out of relief, but hit the batter with his first pitch, so he put it back on the back burner.
On Tuesday, he went to it early and often, throwing it 34 times out of his 98 pitches, more than any of his other pitches.
In the past, Keller has talked about struggling to find a way to get consistent good feel with a two-seamer or sinker, he didn't exactly have good control with it Tuesday, walking five and hitting a batter. But given that his changeup has improved and this pitch moves similarly, just faster, he dove in on it.
"The movement profile of it allowed me to have confidence of, 'let's use it,' " Keller said.
Keller went five innings and allowed just two runs. And it was the sinker that closed his day, catching Will Smith and Edwin Rios looking for strike three to end the fifth.
"I know I had five walks, but I got out of stuff when I had to get out of it."
Here were the locations and results of Keller's sinker Tuesday:
• Tuesday was Keller's first start in his last three outings, partially to use the sinker-slider combo more, partially because the bullpen has been heavily used of late. Shelton said before the game we could still see him in the hybrid role again.
• Another day, another Marcano home run, this time to dead center:
TUCUPITA MARCANO HAS HOMERED IN BACK-TO-BACK GAMES!!! pic.twitter.com/zhtpIaO6pU
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 1, 2022
The 22-year-old call-up does know that's Dodgers Stadium, right? This is a huge stadium, and not just in square footage.
"I think the one thing you can say about Tuc is he’s not afraid, man," Shelton said. "He likes the lights. He’s really shown that."
"I feel very confident at the plate right now," Marcano said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. "I’m seeing the pitches very well. I’m taking good at-bats, getting good reads on the pitches. I just feel really good. To be able to help the team win means a lot to me right now."
• A really nice bounce back outing from Stratton after taking the loss Sunday, striking out the side in the eighth.
• Tyler Heineman had himself a ball game, recording three hits, scoring a pair of runs and making a series of key blocks with Tyler Beede on the mound in the sixth.
He had his family in the stands Tuesday, and that cheering section got pretty loud.
"When he got the first hit, one of the funnier things of the night is he got the first hit and there were a very loud applause from the family section," Shelton said. "And then Freddie Freeman waved to his family, which I thought was pretty funny too."
• Yu Chang got the start as the designated hitter, his first appearance with his new club after being traded for Monday. It did not go well, striking out three times in an 0-for-4 performance.
Before the game, though, he showed excitement about joining his new organization.
“I can accomplish everything the team gives me,” Chang said through the assistance of interpreter Patrick Chu. “I want to keep things simple and do whatever I can to help the team.”
• After reaching 100 career wins Monday, Shelton some text messages from across the league to congratulate him. In the clubhouse, José Quintana gifted him a nice bottle of bourbon, the drink of choice for the skipper.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• 10-day injured list: OF Ben Gamel (hamstring), RHP Heath Hembree (calf), OF Jake Marisnick (thumb), 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo (lumbar muscle strain), Daniel Vogelbach (hamstring)
• 60-day injured list: OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery), Kevin Newman (groin), Roberto Pérez (hamstring, out for season)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Michael Chavis, 1B
4. Diego Castillo, 2B
5. Rodolfo Castro, SS
6. Yu Chang, DH
7. Jack Suwinski, RF
8. Tyler Heineman, C
9. Tucupita Marcano, LF
And for Dave Roberts' Dodgers:
1. Mookie Betts, RF
2. Freddie Freeman, 1B
3. Trea Turner, SS
4. Will Smith, C
5. Edwin Rios,DH
6. Justin Turner, 3B
7. Chris Taylor, CF
8. Gavin Lux, 2B
9. Kevin Pillar, LF
THE SCHEDULE
The Pirates have a chance to get the sweep against the team with the best record in the National League. If they do, it would be their first series sweep since the 2020 season.
Quintana (1-2, 2.15 will take on Mitch White (1-0, 4.60). The final game of the west coast road trip starts at 8:10 p.m. Eastern.
THE CONTENT
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