PITTSBURGH — Before Tuesday, JT Brubaker’s opponents had taken him deep in nine of his last 10 starts, and 18 times overall.
Over that span, his ERA ballooned from 3.77 to 5.49 as he tied for the league lead in home runs allowed.
Brubaker has needed a bounceback start for a while, and he finally got one in the Pirates’ 4-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
It still wasn’t pretty, necessarily. After a 1-2-3 first inning, Brubaker loaded the bases in the second, and put runners on second and third in the third. The Diamondbacks got runners on the corners against him in the fifth. The first were aided by wildness, as he walked three batters in total, one being intentional. The last one was on two singles, two of the four hits he allowed.
And yet, in that second-inning jam, he got Madison Bumgarner to line out sharply to third to avoid damage. In the third, he struck out David Peralta swinging. In the fifth, he induced a flyout to center off the bat of Carson Kelly.
So no, it wasn’t the prettiest five-inning shutout effort ever produced, but it was enough to get Brubaker finally moving in the right direction again. Pitcher wins are fickle and a measurement of team success more than pitcher success in most cases. In this case, though, Brubaker earned his first win since May 29, which represents a much-needed cause for celebration.
Brubaker wasn’t the only Pirate that gained some much-needed positive momentum. The newest Pirate, infielder Michael Chavis, went 0 for 4 in his debut Monday. It isn’t like that set him back and he was searching for answers, but he is looking for a franchise to stick with in the long term. The former top-100 prospect with the Boston Red Sox was sent to the Pirates at the trade deadline, in exchange for left-handed reliever Austin Davis, after he struggled to get consistent playing time in Boston.
On Tuesday, Chavis proved his capabilities. He stepped into the box to lead off the third inning, and promptly left the yard, sending a mighty, 429-foot blast into the concourse in left field. That power is a large part of his game. In his debut season with the Red Sox in 2019, he popped 18 homers in 95 games. That pace fell off in 2020 and the beginning of 2021, but when he was sent to the Pirates and playing in Class AAA Indianapolis, he muscled five homers in 17 games.
Outfielder Anthony Alford was similarly relieved to leave the yard Tuesday. He too put on a power show with Indianapolis this season, hitting 14 dingers in 56 games in his own right. His problems in the majors, though, have been strikeouts. He has looked overmatched at times in the box. In the fourth inning, though, with a runner on first, he jumped on an elevated fastball on the first pitch of his at-bat.
Alford skied it, with a 46-degree launch angle. Those types of balls don’t normally leave the yard. Alford hit it in the perfect spot, though, tucking it inside the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer.
A sacrifice fly from center fielder Bryan Reynolds plated the only other run for the Pirates in the third inning, but that’s all they needed.
Left-hander Chasen Shreve allowed a two-run homer in the eighth to cut the Pirates’ lead in half, but between Brubaker and right-handers Duane Underwood Jr., and Chris Stratton, the Diamondbacks were stymied enough to give the Pirates’ their fourth win in their last five games and the chance to earn their first series sweep of the season Wednesday.
