Jose Quintana earned his first victory of the season as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday night at PNC Park by a 5-1 score.
Quintana has had a terrific start to this young 2022 season, but had yet to tally his first win…until Monday. He lasted 6 innings, giving up just two hits with four walks and five strikeouts. He lowered his ERA to just 2.70 on the season, defeating his mound opponent, Julio Urias. The Dodgers’ left-hander gave up two runs on 11 hits in six innings, taking the loss (2-2).
Pittsburgh broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning on Yoshi Tsutsugo’s sacrifice fly, scoring Michael Chavis. They added a pair of runs in the seventh inning courtesy of a solo homerun by Michael Perez – his second of the season – and a sac fly by Chavis to score Ke’Bryan Hayes.
A two run homerun by Jack Suwinski in the bottom of the eighth put the game away for the Bucs. And despite a solo homerun by Edwin Rios in the top of the ninth to get the Dodgers on the board, the Bucs still coasted to a comfortable victory.
The past few days for the Pirates perfectly articulate why baseball is such a unique sport. The Bucs lost two of three games to the Cincinnati Reds, who had won only three games all season before last weekend. And now, the Pirates return home and beat one of the most talented clubs in the game. This was a great start to the home stand, and hopefully this team can build up some of the momentum that they lost in Cincinnati.
The two teams will meet back up at PNC Park on Tuesday night, with Tony Gonsolin taking the mound for L.A. against Bryse Wilson for Pittsburgh.
Record vs. Dodgers: 1-0
Record vs. N.L. West: 2-2
Record at Home: 6-7
Overall Record: 12-16
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
