Cruz homers as Pirates sweep two in San Diego
Oneil Cruz's solo homer held up in a 1-0 win as the Pirates took both games in San Diego, moving to 65-69 and 6.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race.
Skenes and Cruz close out San Diego
Padres3-2Padres1-0The Pirates beat the Padres 3-2 on August 24 and followed it with a 1-0 win on August 25 to take both games of the set, pushing their record to 65-69 after going 2-3 over their last five. The finale was decided by Oneil Cruz, who went 1-for-3 with a home run and an RBI, and by Paul Skenes, who threw 6.0 innings of three-hit, shutout ball with four strikeouts and no walks.
The two wins came right after a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers, in which Pittsburgh was outscored 13-7 and shut out once. Splitting the trip evenly leaves the Pirates 6.5 games back in the standings with an elimination number of 13.
Barstool's take on Cruz's blast off Miller
@StoolBaseball flagged the homer directly, posting "CLEAR THE DECK" over video of what it called "A CRUZ MISSILE OFF MASON MILLER" — the same solo shot that stood up as the only run of the 1-0 win.
It's the kind of night Pittsburgh was missing while Cruz was out: he was activated off the 60-day injured list on August 17, per MLB Trade Rumors, and needed just over a week back to produce the swing Barstool's own account chose to highlight.
Upcoming
Bubba Chandler (6-8, 4.38 ERA) starts for Pittsburgh; in his last outing against the Dodgers on August 21 he lasted just 4.0 innings, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits with 6 strikeouts and 2 walks over 88 pitches and left with no decision. San Diego counters with Randy Vásquez (9-6, 4.19 ERA), who beat the Twins on August 21 with 7.0 shutout-caliber innings, allowing 2 earned runs on 2 hits with no walks and 3 strikeouts.
The Padres are favored as the Pirates are in San Diego this afternoon, and the market's total reads middling — a fair read given a Padres rotation piece coming off a strong start against Vásquez and a Chandler who's given up four earned runs in each of his last two turns. For the number to come in low, Chandler needs to find the form that got him through four scoreless in his prior look against the Dodgers before this rough one; for it to run high, Pittsburgh's lineup needs to keep swinging the way it did in the series finale.