Peguero calls it: Bucs strike early vs. Strider

PITTSBURGH -- If anyone knew what was in store for Spencer Strider in the Pirates’ series opener vs. the Braves, it was Liover Peguero.

“I’m not trying to be extra right now, but before the game, I screamed in [the clubhouse],” the Pirates infielder said. “I said, ‘We’re going to get him out before the third.’ Everybody was like, ‘Why are you saying this?’”

It turned out he was correct -- almost eerily correct.

In the series opener vs. the Braves, the Bucs chased Strider after only 2 2/3 innings, striking for six runs in the third inning to give MLB’s strikeout leader one of his shortest starts in a 7-6 win on Monday night at PNC Park.

The first two innings went as many have for batters facing Strider this year: Three strikeouts to just one hit, a double by Endy Rodríguez.

Then in the third, Peguero led off with a double and came around to score after two groundouts. It seemed Strider might escape this time, but the Pirates made Strider work with two outs.

Bryan Reynolds walked, then scored on Andrew McCutchen’s double. Henry Davis singled McCutchen home before consecutive walks drawn by Jack Suwinski and Rodríguez loaded the bases.

The Pirates avoided a rally killer when Rodríguez was nearly caught with too large of a lead at first base, but he made one of the more spectacular dives around a tag this season to get in safely. Instead, it allowed Jared Triolo to notch a two-run single that knocked Strider out of the game, and Peguero capped the fun he began with an RBI single off reliever Michael Tonkin.

It was only the fifth time this season the Pirates have put up six runs in an inning.

“We just stuck with our approach that we adopted from the beginning of the game,” Triolo said. “And then one hit after the other -- I feel like it was contagious there for a minute. And that’s what baseball is: striking when it’s hot, getting the next guy up.”

What was that successful approach? To hear it from Rodríguez, whom manager Derek Shelton said had some of the best at-bats of the day, it was quite simple.

“Staying with the fastball no matter what, no matter the count,” Rodríguez said. “Just staying with the fastball.”

Monday’s game was a big test for one of MLB’s least experienced lineups. Six of the nine players in the starting lineup have two years or fewer of MLB service time, including four players in their rookie seasons. Meanwhile, Strider’s 208 strikeouts coming into the contest were the most in MLB by a large margin; he broke his own record for fastest pitcher to 200 K's in MLB history in his most recent start entering Pittsburgh.

But Strider is also a two-pitch pitcher. It’s obviously given him a ton of success this year -- especially given his fastball rides with a near-100 mph velocity -- but for a patient and contact-heavy Pirates lineup, it makes it a tad easier in the guesswork department.

Pittsburgh’s youngsters passed with flying colors, pushing Strider’s pitch count from 19 to 63 in the course of an unrelenting inning.

“When you’re facing a guy like that that has strikeout stuff … and you get that first hit, for a young group like that, it’s like, ‘All right. [We have] some confidence. We can get after this guy a little bit,’” Shelton said.

The Pirates gave Strider his shortest start since the Phillies forced him to exit after 2 1/3 innings in Game 3 of the National League Division Series last postseason.

The outburst was a welcome sign for the Pirates, who have scored the sixth-fewest runs in MLB in 2023. If the Bucs’ lineup, which was revamped a bit by Deadline moves, can carry this momentum into the rest of the series, it would be a huge sign for Pittsburgh’s young core.

And it couldn’t hurt if Peguero could prophesy a few more great comings on the horizon.

“This team, it doesn’t matter who’s out there, we’re going to try our best,” Peguero said. “That’s what we did tonight.”