ST. LOUIS -- "He’s a guy that’s going to be huge for us this season and for years to come.”
That was Mitch Keller, praising his friend JT Brubaker for following up his fine with an equally encouraging big-league debut in the Pirates' 5-1 flattening of the Cardinals on this sweltering Sunday at Busch Stadium.
But Keller could just as easily have been saying precisely the same about Nick Burdi, who closed it out with a breathtaking clinic.
Or even Derek Shelton, whose first managerial win after a lifetime in the sport was celebrated by being doused by booze, then by delivering the quote of the young season to date: "Yeah, I got a pretty severe beer shower.