Wednesday Playbacks: Derek Shelton Gets First Managerial Win
After working as a coach in Major League Baseball for 15 seasons spanning four different organizations, Derek Shelton finally reached his goal of being a Big League manager in 2020. He was hired by the Pirates on November 27th, 2019, and was ready to hit the ground running. When he got the team into Spring Training, he wanted to establish a culture of fun, but with winning as the top priority. He had a group that many counted out at the beginning of the season, and he and the baseball operations staff wanted to get a good look at the talent they had. This meant moving some guys around and getting bench guys more playing time as they evaluated each player's value.
Then, the baseball world was struck by the COVID-19 shutdown-ending Spring Training right then and there. There was a lot of uncertainty involving the 2020 season, and Shelton didn't know if he would even get the opportunity to manage in the Big Leagues in 2020. However, after a long battle over the terms of the Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association, the season finally got started on July 24th, 2020. The Pirates were in St. Louis taking on the Cardinals and Derek Shelton finally achieved his dream of managing a Big League game. His first two games didn't go so well, but he finally broke through in game three of the series picking up his first win as a Big League manager on July 26th, 2020.
The Build-Up Of Two Young Pitchers
With the Pirates already dropping the first two games of the 2020 season, it was important that they bounce back in game three of this series. The game featured a matchup between two young pitchers, Mitch Keller for the Pirates and Dakota Hudson for the Cardinals. After a shaky debut in 2019, Keller was out to show that he could be the ace-caliber pitcher that Pittsburgh needed him to be. For Hudson, he was looking to show that his 16-7 record during his rookie season was no fluke and that he too could become a top starter for the Cardinals. In the first two innings, both starters rolled along with Keller facing six batters and Hudson facing seventh. The Pirates had the only hit of the game and the score was tied 0-0 after two innings.
The Pirates threatened in the top of the third with a two-out single from Erik Gonzalez, but nothing came to fruition as Adam Frazier popped out in foul territory to end the inning. In the bottom of the third, Keller got the first two outs rather quickly by getting Tyler O'Neill to flyout and having Lane Thomas caught stealing after a one-out walk. With nobody on and two out molten Wing would single to give the Cardinals some life. He would move up on a wild pitch, and come around the score on a Tommy Edman single to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. The Pirates were behind again and things weren't looking good as Dakota Hudson was rolling along.
The Bats Come to Life
As the game moved to the top of the fourth, Hudson kept rolling as he struck out both Bryan Reynolds and Josh Bell and there was no one on and two outs. Colin Moran came to the plate and worked the count to 2-2 before trying the game with one swing of the bat. Moran lifted his first home run of the year to right field and the game was tied at 1-1. The offense just kept rolling from there as Phillip Evans singled and Jose Osuna lifted his first home run of the year to left field, a two-run shot, and the Pirates jumped out to a 3-1 lead after three and a half innings of play. With the lead now on his side, Keller could bear down and focus on keeping his team in the lead.
He did just that over his final two innings of work, setting down the final six batters he faced, striking out three of them. He would leave after five innings of work and had a great start to the season allowing a run on two hits while walking three and striking out two. He was a little wild for the first start of the year, but it was his first quality start of the season and the Pirates would take it. They would add one more run of support before Keller left in the top of the fifth. Jacob Stallings doubled to start the inning and was brought around on a sacrifice fly by Josh Bell that made the score 4-1 after five innings. It was now up to the bullpen to hold the lead and try to get the Pirates their first win of the season.
A Harrowing MLB Debut
Tasked with keeping the lead for the Pirates was pitcher JT Brubaker, who was making his Major League Debut. He came on in the sixth inning and immediately made his presence felt, striking out the first two batters he faced. He allowed a two-out single to Paul Goldschmidt, but Bryan Reynolds showed off his arm and threw Goldschmidt out trying to advance to second. It was a big lift for Brubaker and kept the benches empty. Brubaker returned for the seventh inning and got in a little trouble allowing runners to first and third with two outs, but he came back and struck out Dexter Fowler and got a flyout from Tyler O'Neill to end the inning and keep the Pirates ahead 4-1.
The Pirates would add on in the top of the eighth after a Josh Bell one out walk. Philip Evans would step to the plate with two outs and a runner on first, and doubled to the gap in left-center field, scoring Bell and putting the Pirates ahead 5-1 after seven and a half innings of play. With the security run scored, Michael Feliz and Nick Burdi would end the day with back-to-back one, two, three innings, and the Pirates would salvage a game of the three-game series, and pick up their first win of the season. The Pirates moved to 1-2 on the season and had some momentum heading into their home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers. For Derek Shelton, it was the culmination of 15 years of hard work that brought him to his first win as a Big League manager.
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