Brubaker shows 'total control' in start

On one end of the box score in the Pirates’ 2-0 loss to the Twins on Friday was 38-year-old veteran and former Pirate J.A. Happ, who carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning for the Twins.

On the other end was 26-year-old JT Brubaker, who is beginning to come into his own and advance his game in just his second season with the Pirates.

Despite giving up two homers and taking the loss, Brubaker went seven innings at Target Field, the longest start by a Pittsburgh pitcher this season and the longest of his Major League career.

The outing was certainly nothing for Brubaker to hang his head about. The right-hander, who was a Top 30 prospect for the Pirates ahead of his debut in 2020, was efficient as ever, requiring only 79 pitches to work through the Twins’ order. Really, the only mistake Brubaker made was a middle-middle pitch that Jake Cave barely swatted over the left-field wall for a home run in the fifth inning.

The other homer? A four-seamer at eye level for Willians Astudillo that the first baseman caught up to and deposited into the left-field seats. At 4.24 feet off the ground, it was the highest pitch hit for a home run in MLB since September 2019.

“At first, it was, OK, tip my hat, it was up out of the zone, it's where I wanted it and he clipped it,” Brubaker said of his reaction to the homer. “And then they showed the replay on the big screen out there, and it was actually higher than I thought it was, and I'm just like, ‘Wow.’”

Brubaker pounded the zone, throwing 69.6% of his pitches for strikes. His slider, which he routinely throws the most of any offering, was particularly sharp on Friday, drawing eight of his 10 whiffs and punctuating four of his five strikeouts.

Not much is changing in terms of what Brubaker is throwing or how he’s shaping his pitches. What is slowly evolving is the enhanced way Brubaker is approaching each start, as he begins to better understand, as he puts it, “the art of pitching.”

“Just being able to mix, knowing when to go to stuff, just advancing my scouting and stuff like that,” Brubaker said.

Brubaker’s effort and understanding of the art of pitching is apparent to Jacob Stallings, whom the Pirates’ pitching staff has raved about in regard to his game calling and preparation. Stallings, who broke up Happ’s no-hit bid with a one-out double in the eighth, said that Brubaker threw the ball well last year, when the then-rookie posted a 4.94 ERA.

Now, with Brubaker touting a crisp 2.01 ERA after four starts, Stallings feels the hurler is taking the next step.

"He did it last year, too, but he comes into the pregame meeting prepared,” Stallings said. “He's got notes on every hitter, where he wants to attack them, what he wants to do. It's usually right in sync with what [Pitching coach Oscar Marin] and I and the staff kind of see as well.”

That mature pitching mindset also translated into how Brubaker never allowed himself to be rattled in a weird game on Friday night -- neither by the two homers hit off him, nor the no-hitter that Happ was working on for the entirety of Brubaker’s outing.

“I knew what was going on, but I was staying focused where -- hey, look, anything can happen. I mean, we've scored crooked numbers multiple times this season already,” Brubaker said. “So it was, 'All right, I need to go out, keep this game close, let our offense get another opportunity to come up, get deeper.'”

They nearly capitalized on their shot, as after Stallings doubled, Wilmer Difo -- who nearly broke up the no-hit bid in the fifth, but was ruled out on a fielder's right of way call -- walked to bring up Kevin Newman, who advanced the runners with a groundout, and Adam Frazier, who struck out on a breaking ball from Tyler Duffey.

But the Pirates will continue to get those shots in close games if Brubaker continues to deal the way he’s dealt early this season.

“To navigate through that lineup -- that is a good lineup -- and to give up two runs on two solo homers, he was extremely efficient,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He was in total control. It was a well-pitched game.”