Bucs' reward for fifth straight win? Shaving coach's head

PITTSBURGH -- When the Pirates faced the Marlins in Miami on July 13, 2022, riding a four-game win streak, there was a message on the whiteboard in the visiting clubhouse that laid out the stakes: if they rattled off their fifth straight dub, something they’d never done during Derek Shelton’s managerial tenure, bench coach Don Kelly’s head would be shaved.

The Bucs didn’t win that night, the streak ending at four. They had opportunities to secure five straight victories on Sept. 15, 2022, and April 8, 2023, too, but they fell flat. On April 21, 2023, however, Pittsburgh wouldn’t let another opportunity pass it by.

With a 4-2 win over the Reds on Friday night at PNC Park, the Pirates have won five consecutive games for the first time since April 14-20, 2019. Mike Gonzalez, the team’s former translator and unofficial barber, won’t be in Pittsburgh to perform the cut after moving to a different role within the organization, but come Saturday, someone -- perhaps third base coach Mike Rabelo -- will ensure Kelly is rocking a new look.

“I think they’re lining up to see who cuts Donnie’s hair right now,” Shelton said. “I think Rabelo’s been wanting to do it for a while. That’s probably who’s going to end up doing it.”

As has been the case over the last week-and-a-half, Pittsburgh was led by its pitching. Mitch Keller threw six innings of two-run ball, securing the rotation’s 11th consecutive quality start, the Pirates' longest such streak since June 7-19, 2015, when the staff strung together 12 straight.

Keller retired the first 11 batters he faced before plunking Spencer Steer on a sinker that ran too far inside to the right-hander. Keller didn’t let the errant two-seamer disrupt his flow, immediately bouncing back to strike out Jake Fraley looking with a sinker.

The Reds finally got to Keller in the fifth inning, ending his hopes of both a no-hitter and a shutout by plating two runs on three hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly. Keller responded with a scoreless sixth inning to end his night strong, not only preserving the rotation’s quality start streak, but extending his own personal streak to four.

"We’ve seen Mitch Keller a lot,” said Reds manager David Bell. “That might have been the best stuff we’ve seen him have.”

The Pirates’ offense has come back down to earth over the past two games after plating 33 runs in their three-game series sweep of the Rockies in Denver, but on Friday, they manufactured just enough offense to support the pitching staff. The game’s defining play, however, wasn’t a product of Pittsburgh’s bats but rather Cincinnati’s gloves.

With two outs in the sixth inning and Connor Joe on third base, Mark Mathias hit what appeared to be a routine inning-ending grounder to Reds shortstop Jose Barrero. Not only did Barrero fumble the ball on one end, but first baseman Jason Vosler couldn’t catch the ball cleanly on the other end, allowing Mathias to reach and Joe to score.

The following inning, two of Pittsburgh’s elder statesmen -- Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Santana -- played parts in plating an insurance run. McCutchen began the two-out rally with a five-pitch walk, then Santana, after being brushed back on back-to-back pitches by Ian Gibaut, lined a double into the left-center field gap that scored McCutchen from first base. Following his roughly 270-foot sprint from first-to-home, cameras caught McCutchen playfully taking a well-deserved snooze on the bench.

One of the biggest plays from Friday’s win wasn’t really a play at all. When Austin Hedges came to the plate with two outs in the eighth inning, Rodolfo Castro had just flied out to center field on one pitch. Instead of immediately stepping into the box, Hedges took a time out, allowing closer David Bednar a couple extra moments to get loose and prepare to record what would be his MLB-leading seventh save.

“That’s a sign of a really good catcher, that he takes as much time as possible,” Shelton said. “I think there were a lot of things that the veteran guys did at the end that were really, uh, veteran-ish. I don’t know if that’s a word, but I’m going to use it.”

Over the course of these last five games, the Pirates have won in a variety of ways. They’ve slugged. They’ve shoved. They’ve defended. Kelly will pay the price for this latest stretch of success, but considering the rising number in the win column, it’s a price he’ll gladly pay.