PITTSBURGH — Trevor Cahill and Luis Oviedo are the oldest and youngest players on the Pirates’ roster. When Cahill made his MLB debut with Oakland on April 7, 2009, Oviedo was just 9 years old. Entering Monday’s game, the 21-year-old Oviedo had recorded nine major league outs. Cahill has had that many employers at this level.
About the only thing they have in common involves their quick paths to the majors. Both made it here at 21. Cahill rejected an academic scholarship to Dartmouth after he was drafted in the second round and took fewer than three years to throw his first pitch for the A’s. Oviedo is a Rule 5 pick the Pirates acquired in December, the process requiring Pittsburgh to keep him on its roster.
Though on opposite ends of the results spectrum, Cahill and Oviedo played primary roles in the Padres’ 6-2 victory over the Pirates on Monday at PNC Park.
The veteran took a step forward. The youngster went the other direction. And the Pirates (3-7) saw their two-game winning streak end.
Oviedo was on the mound when the game turned for good in the sixth inning. That he was there involved a curious decision from Derek Shelton, one that shows how the Pirates manager feels about the hard-throwing reliever. It was hardly an easy assignment.
The Padres entered the game with the third-best OPS (.758) in the National League, while their cleanup hitter — first baseman Eric Hosmer — was slashing .353/.421/.676 through his first nine games. Oviedo jogged from the bullpen with the score tied at 1, set to face 3-4-5 in San Diego’s stacked lineup — superstar Manny Machado, Hosmer and Wil Myers. Good luck, kid. Go get ‘em.
The end result wasn’t good for Oviedo, at least in the short-term. The hope is that it matters big-picture, though he gave up five earned runs on five hits over 1⅔ innings. The lesson for Oviedo: Command of your pitches matters.
Oviedo walked Machado to open the sixth and got Hosmer on a tapper back to the mound before missing with his four-seam fastball. Myers cranked it 421 feet to straightaway center.
It wasn’t the worst pitch Oviedo could have thrown, but it wasn’t the type of offering that convinced Shelton Oviedo was ready for this spot. It also would have hurt less without the preceding walk. The Padres tacked on another run in the sixth thanks to a run-scoring double from catcher Victor Caratini, and it came on a similar pitch — low in the zone, but leaking out over.
What they both should tell Oviedo is that hitters at this level are incredibly good. The tiniest details matter.
Trouble continued in the next inning, as Oviedo walked left fielder Jurickson Profar and gave up a single to Machado before Myers smacked an elevated slider from Oviedo out to left, scoring two more.
The difficulty of facing major league hitters is something Cahill knows plenty well — and was forced to re-learn when he struggled in his last start.
The 33-year-old allowed seven earned runs over four innings and looked every bit like someone who pitched only 3⅔ innings during spring training. He looked like a pitcher still trying to knock off significant rust.
The biggest factor with Cahill was the sharpness of his breaking stuff. For someone with below-average velocity in this flamethrowing era, Cahill relies on a terrific curveball — one of the better ones in baseball, honestly — and a cutter that can behave like a slider.
Neither was particularly effective in his last start against the Reds, and Cahill paid the price. But against the Padres, the Pirates saw what Cahill can be when his stuff is stuff working. The only run Cahill allowed came in the first inning, on a bloop single from Myers that the right fielder amazingly hit twice. (Yes, seriously. Almost defied physics.)
Other than that, Cahill was terrific, allowing three hits and a pair of walks while striking out eight. Half of those strikeouts came on cutters, while Cahill mixed all of his pitches effectively.
He maybe could’ve gone one more, too, as the Pirates had two outs and nobody on when Shelton yanked Cahill for a pinch-hitter at just 82 pitches. (Flip side would be that Cahill still isn’t fully built-up.)
Either way, it was an encouraging outing from the veteran right-hander, one that continues the trend of strong starts on this homestand. Over the past four games, that group has pitched to a 2.61 ERA.
It was a tough assignment for the Pirates offense on Monday, as it faced right-hander Yu Darvish, who had held Pittsburgh to a batting average that was only a little over .100. Furthermore, San Diego’s pitching staff has been ridiculous — leading the National League in batting average against (.181), strikeouts (108), ERA (1.78, also MLB) and bullpen ERA (0.84, also MLB) entering the game.
The Padres looked every bit that good against the Pirates, who were limited to a run-scoring double from Phillip Evans in the first and an Adam Frazier sacrifice fly in the eighth. Wilmer Difo scored after hitting a pinch-hit triple.
Darvish allowed a run over seven with six strikeouts to earn his first win of the season. Former Pirate Keone Kela finished the game with a scoreless ninth for his new team.
