Kevin Gorman's Take 5: Cody Ponce, Nik Turley have milestone night in sweep of Cardinals

Cody Ponce was disappointed when Derek Shelton visited the mound with two outs in the sixth inning, not by the Pittsburgh Pirates manager pounding him on the chest but rather by asking for the baseball.

“It was bittersweet, because I wanted to finish it,” Ponce said, “but I knew going into the sixth I was on basically, like, if anything happened, that was that. He was just very proud of me and very excited for what he saw. He was very happy that I went out there and I did my best and I pretty much saved our bullpen.”

What Shelton said to Ponce wasn’t suitable for sharing, other than the skipper telling him, “Great job.” Especially for his first major-league start. Ponce attacked the St. Louis Cardinals, as the Pirates won, 2-0, to sweep their doubleheader Thursday at Busch Stadium.

Not only did starters Ponce and Chad Kuhl save the bullpen by pitching a combined 11⅔ innings, but they delivered strong performances when the team needed them most. The Pirates’ confidence was low after visiting the Chicago White Sox, where Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel combined to strike out 20 Pirates over two games.

So the Pirates had plenty of reason to celebrate in St. Louis, where Shelton got his first major-league managerial win in July and where Ponce earned his first major-league victory and Nik Turley his first major-league save in the same game.

“The fact that we had two firsts tonight — first major-league save and first major-league win — so I know what a beer shower feels like in St. Louis and I think those guys got one,” Shelton said. “It’s kind of nice to see.”

#Pirates Cody Ponce

2020 Pitch Quality (54 pitches)

Vertical Break
FF (Top 2% MLB)⭐️
CU (Top 9%)
CH (Top 11%)

Location
SL (Top 1% MLB)⭐️
FF (Top 5%)

Velocity
SL (Top 1% MLB)⭐️
FF (Top 35%)@Cody_Ponce48 @Pirates @gbrowniepoints @joe_block @theFortMcKenry @robkinger91 pic.twitter.com/N0XbdHwabm

— MLB Quality of Pitch (@qopbaseball) August 28, 2020

1. Attack mode: Ponce made his major-league debut as a reliever, so he understood the importance of preserving the bullpen with the Pirates in the middle of a stretch of playing 15 games in 13 days.

“Being in that bullpen,” Ponce said, “you know we’re going to try not to get into that and use them on these doubleheader days, these short games, and try to save them for (Friday) against Milwaukee.”

The Pirates acquired Ponce last summer from Milwaukee in the Jordan Lyles trade. Earlier this month, they sent him to their alternate training site in Altoona, where he threw two side sessions in order to build up his arm for this start.

The plan was for Ponce to attack the Cardinals, and he mixed his cutter, curveball and fastball with the intention of working the strike zone. Consider that a mission accomplished, as he threw 51 of his 77 pitches for strikes, and both Ponce and Shelton were quick to credit catcher John Ryan Murphy for his guidance.

“I asked him, ‘What are we gonna do here?’ He said, ‘We’re gonna go right after them,’” Ponce said of Murphy. “That kinda put me in a different state of mind. Going into the third, it was, ‘Let’s just go out there and attack the best we can, hit my spots and go from there.’ Stop trying to overthink everything and just throw the baseball like I’ve been doing my entire life.”

I know all the talk is about the big three Harvard-Westlake trio of Lucas Giolito, Max Fried and Jack Flaherty..... but give it up for 2009 graduate Nik Turley who picked up a save today for the Pittsburgh Pirates @hwathletics @mlacour3 @Halp24 @LGio27 @MaxFried1 @Jack9Flaherty

— Jack Pollon (@pollonpreps) August 28, 2020

2. Savoring the save: Where Ponce made his debut as a reliever, Turley was a starter for the first three games of his major-league career.

So the last thing the 31-year-old lefty expected was to earn a save before he did a win.

Turley got the call for the seventh inning of the second game, the kind of opportunity he’s been waiting for his entire career, which took a long road to get to this point.

“That means everything, to have the trust of your coaches to put you in that spot,” Turley said. “Trust you to get the job done. It means a whole lot.”

Turley repaid that vote of confidence by getting Yadier Molina to fly out to center, striking out Dylan Carlson and getting Max Schrock to pop out to right to finish the game.

“Yeah, if you were to ask me 10 years ago if, being in the big leagues if I would have gotten a win before a save, I probably would have said, ‘Win,’” Turley said. “But this was pretty special. It was a good night.”

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review

Pirates reliever Nik Turley delivers during the seventh inning against the Tigers Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020, at PNC Park.

3. Battery powered: One of the special moments for Turley was having Murphy behind the plate, as they share a long history.

Both are products of the New York Yankees’ farm system, and they were teammates in rookie ball as far back as 2009.

“One of the first games he caught me was a combined no-hitter,” Turley said. “We’ve been through a lot. This is the third team that we’ve played together on. That was really cool. That made it a little bit more special.”

Not that Turley would have complained if it were Jacob Stallings catching. It’s become a running joke that they are doppelgangers, as both are tall, bald-headed and wear beards.

“It would have been pretty cool if Stallings was there, too — my twin,” Turley said. “To have Murph there catching that, it was a little extra special.”

4. Going Gonzo: Erik Gonzalez started at shortstop in both games of the doubleheader – his fifth and sixth starts there in the past eight games — and Shelton said he “put on a clinic” defensively.

Gonzalez has now started more games at shortstop (11) than he has at third base (nine) this season. Shelton started Gonzalez at short and Kevin Newman at second base both times Adam Frazier was given the day off and the one time he served as designated hitter.

That’s not by accident.

“I like Newman on the other side of the bag, too, so if we can get him over there, it just adds to his versatility,” Shelton said. “Honestly, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who’s played short as well as Gonzo has. I mean, I’m not talking about here; I’m talking throughout the league. I mean, this guy has played elite defense.”

Make that 3 dingers in 15 at-bats, as #BlueJays' Anthony Alford has homered in each of his first two trips to the plate. Here he is on the @BlueJays' Top 30 Prospects list: https://t.co/fUmBi3GarM pic.twitter.com/kjYRNpI3fC

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 8, 2019

5. All in on Alford: The Pirates claimed outfielder Anthony Alford off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays, where both Shelton and Pirates general manager Ben Cherington both previously worked.

Shelton called the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Alford, who hit two homers and had five RBIs in 46 major-league games over four seasons, an “unbelievably athletic kid” with plenty of potential who can play any of the three outfield spots.

“I think there’s a lot in there with the bat,” Shelton said. “We’re going to hope to untap it. Probably one of the best kids I’ve ever been around. If you go from 20-80 skills, I’d give him an 80. He’s an unbelievable human being. Excited to add him into the group and see what we can do with him.”