Virtual Pirates one-hit Reds
CINCINNATI –
You can’t a game when you don’t give up any runs and that’s exactly what the
Virtual Pirates did Friday night.
Rookie JT
Brubaker and two relievers combined on a one-hit shutout and the Virtual Buccos
rolled to an 8-0 victory over the Virtual Cincinnati Reds at Virtual Great
American Ball Park.
The Pirates (70-53)
had lost five of their previous eight games and saw their 5 1/2-game lead in
the National League Central over the Virtual Milwaukee Brewers cut to one game.
The lead is now two games following Friday night’s win.
Brubaker
(2-1) went 5 2/3 innings and allowed the only hit, a leadoff double to Nick
Senzel in the third inning, before leaving the game when he felt a twinge in
his arm. He struck out six, walked one and threw 76 pitches.
Brubaker
will undergo further evaluation Saturday.
Kyle Crick
got the final out of the sixth and Clay Holmes pitched the last three innings
for his first save.
Adam Frazier
opened the scoring with a solo home run in the second inning off Trevor Bauer
(6-11). Brubaker singled in the game’s second run in the fifth and the Pirates
broke it open with a six-runs seventh that included an RBI triple by Luke
Maile.
Frazier had
two hits and two RBIs while Marcus Semien and Travis Swaggerty added two hits
each.
The big win
came after a day of spelunking as bench coach Craig Wilson organized a team
trip to an area cave. The Pirates got to the ballpark just an hour before game
time and did no pre-game drills other than some brief stretching before taking
the field.
“Sometimes,
you’ve just got to shut your brain off from baseball for a few hours and I
think it helped the guys a lot,” Wilson said.
Wilson then
provided a capper to a great day by treating the team to a rib dinner from the
Montgomery Inn.
Game time
temperature was 82 degrees with the wind blowing out to right field at 8 mph.
Time of game was three and 26 minutes and attendance was 27,078.
The third
game of the four-game series is set for Saturday night with Sean Manaea (12-7,
3.64) pitching against Sonny Gray (9-8, 4.79).
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