Bubba Chandler appears to have made notable strides as a starter over his last few outings.<\/p>\n
With the Pittsburgh Pirates aiming to stay above .500 and secure a series victory over the Seattle Mariners at PNC Park, Thursday afternoon offered an opportunity for Chandler to keep building momentum.<\/p>\n
Chandler gave the Pirates a chance to win and thanks to home runs by Brandon Lowe and Henry Davis plus a strong finish by the bullpen, they did 5-1 in front of 24,367 fans.<\/p>\n
While Chandler (3-7, 4.42 ERA) was removed after 5 1\/3 innings pitched, he limited Seattle to a lone run on five hits, walking three with four strikeouts.<\/p>\n
He threw 46 of his 75 pitches for strikes, earning a win.<\/p>\n
Once he departed, Evan Sisk, Yohan Ramirez, Mason Montgomery and Gregory Soto combined to preserve the lead.<\/p>\n
The Pirates (41-40) overcame Mariners starter Bryce Miller (3-2, 1.97 ERA), who struck out 11 in a losing effort over 5 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
Seattle (41-41) had plenty of offensive opportunities, but couldn\u2019t convert, as the Mariners stranded 11 and went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
After Chandler worked around a Cal Raleigh double in the first, Lowe hit his team-leading 19th home run in the bottom of the inning, a solo shot over the Clemente Wall to make it 1-0 Pirates early.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the third, Davis came to the plate for the first time.<\/p>\n
Sporting a .136 batting average on the year upon entering the batter\u2019s box, he hit a two-run homer off Miller, his sixth of the season, 390 feet to left-center field to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Davis\u2019 blast scored Jared Triolo, who walked.<\/p>\n
By the end of the third, Bryan Reynolds had managed a single, making him the third Pirate since 2000 (joining Brian Giles and Jason Kendall) to produce a 30-game on-base streak within a single season, which dates to May 23.<\/p>\n
Chandler faced a jam in the fourth after allowing back-to-back singles to Julio Rodriguez and Josh Naylor.<\/p>\n
Then, with two outs, the Pirates failed to nab Rodriguez in a rundown at third, as a Triolo throwing error also advanced Naylor to second.<\/p>\n
Chandler proceeded to walk Luke Raley but Jake Mangum put out the fire with a sliding grab of a Cole Young line drive, as the Pirates maintained their three-run lead.<\/p>\n
In the top of the fifth, Chandler\u2019s command disappeared, allowing Seattle to get on the board.<\/p>\n
Following consecutive walks to Mitch Garver and Colt Emerson, JP Crawford singled on the first pitch he saw to score Garver, making it 3-1.<\/p>\n
However, Chandler bounced back with a strikeout of Raleigh, while Rodriguez hit into an inning-ending double play.<\/p>\n
After Chandler let up an infield single to Randy Arozarena with one out in the sixth, manager Don Kelly turned to Sisk.<\/p>\n
With two outs, Sisk faced a bases-loaded jam, as Raley singled and Garver was hit by a pitch.<\/p>\n
Emerson sharply grounded out to Triolo at shortstop, closing the book on Chandler.<\/p>\n
The Pirates had to quell another threat in the seventh, as Sisk was relieved in favor of Ramirez after issuing a one-out walk to Raleigh.<\/p>\n
Ramirez couldn\u2019t get the job done though, walking a pair to load the bases before Montgomery replaced him and recorded the inning\u2019s final out.<\/p>\n
Montgomery stayed on for the eighth and was effective, striking out a pair in a one-two-three frame.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the eighth, Lowe and Davis gnerated some insurance for the Pirates, who took a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n
David led off the frame with a double and stole second, allowing Lowe to bat him in with an RBI single.<\/p>\n
Ryan O\u2019Hearn then made it 5-1 with an RBI base hit, scoring Reynolds, who walked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bubba Chandler appears to have made notable strides as a starter over his last few outings. With the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-725835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}