It’s kind of weird to see the Pirates win a slugfest game like that one, but hey, whatever works, right? I suppose A.J. Burnett has earned a couple of wins like this, where the offense carries him through a sub-par outing, and that was certainly the case here.
Hard throwing Yordano Ventura was probably a pretty good matchup for the fastball-loving Bucs, and they attacked early and often – it was a productive night for pretty much everyone except Sean Rodriguez. The star? None other than Travis Ishikawa.