Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Duane Underwood Jr. tone setter as Pirates bullpen shines in opener

It wasn’t lost on Duane Underwood when he was acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates that they opened the season against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, or that he could pitch against his former team.

So there was no shortage of motivation for Underwood going from the Cubs to the Bucs. The 26-year-old right-hander, a former second-round draft pick once ranked the No. 4 prospect in the Cubs organization, wanted to show what he could do after being dealt for first base prospect Shendrik Apostel on March 7, in the middle of spring training.

“I knew this matchup was coming since I got traded,” Underwood said after the Pirates’ 5-3 win on Opening Day. “It was exciting to go against those guys. Those are great hitters, man. That’s a great team, and to do what we did today, I think that was a real testament to how spring went for a lot of guys and what we want to do as a ballclub moving forward.”

Underwood relieved starter Chad Kuhl in the fourth inning, with the Pirates protecting a 3-2 lead, and struck out the side on 18 pitches. He got all three batters he faced to go down swinging while showing off a three-pitch mix — Javier Baez on a changeup, Jason Heyward on a fastball and David Bote on a curveball.

“Shoot, just from facing those guys for years of live BPs, I got to watch a lot of those guys grow up in that organization, as I did,” Underwood said. “I got to face Javy. I got to face Bote. Me and Bote got drafted together, so I had a lot of time over the years to face those hitters and felt confident in my game, and I knew I could get those guys out.”

On a day when the attention was focused on Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes becoming only the second rookie in club history to homer on Opening Day — and the youngest since Barry Bonds in 1988 — Underwood was the star of an underlying storyline.

RHP Duane Underwood Jr. #Pirates

Very impressive today striking out the side ? pic.twitter.com/iQzel57CcK

— Pirates Prospect Talk (@TalkPirates) April 1, 2021

1. Setting the tone: Underwood set the tone by striking out the side in the fourth, as the bullpen accounted for 11 strikeouts.

“Coming into the game, just wanted to get a good vibe, get a good tempo and compete, and go out there and do exactly what I wanted to do out there and execute,” Underwood said. “That was the main goal, and I accomplished that.”

Clay Holmes got Willson Contreras to go down swinging to end the fifth. Lefty Sam Howard matched Underwood’s feat by whiffing heart-of-the-order hitters Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Joc Pederson in the sixth.

And, in his Pirates debut, Mars graduate David Bednar dazzled with a 97-mph four-seamer to strike out Baez and Heyward and get pinch hitter Matt Duffy to fly out to right in the seventh.

At one point, the Pirates retired 15 consecutive Cubs batters, 10 by strikeout. Six relievers combined to allow only one hit, a leadoff double by Eric Sogard in the eighth, and one walk.

“Unbelievable,” Kuhl said. “Each guy just passing the torch. There’s a lot of talent in that bullpen. Guys that have done it for a little while now, and some guys that are young, trying to stake a claim. It’s unbelievable, especially in a day like today, to have eight warm-up pitches and have it ready. Really impressive.”

David Bednar, Ridiculous 76mph Curveball. ? pic.twitter.com/vkMqR9Jar5

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 1, 2021

2. Big relief: Pirates manager Derek Shelton knew that he would lean heavily on his bullpen in the opener, with Kuhl only being built up to four innings and the cold, windy weather in Chicago.

“Until starters get built up and when you have cold-weather environments and with the fact that we’re all coming off 60 games,” Shelton said, “I think you’re gonna see bullpens become really important.”

It also helped that the Pirates had an off day Friday, which allowed Shelton to go deep into his bullpen because he knew they had a built-in day of rest on the schedule.

None of the relievers had to pitch more than one inning. None were required to throw more than 19 pitches.

“That played into it,” Shelton said. “Going into the game, we knew that was going to play into it. We controlled the pitch counts pretty well, so that played a large part of it.”

That formula worked for the opener, but the Pirates know they can’t depend so heavily upon the bullpen or expect relievers to perform like that every game.

Our bullpen tho ? pic.twitter.com/2WcfQfo95I

— Pirates (@Pirates) April 2, 2021

3. Fool’s gold: The Pirates returned a pair of Gold Glove finalists to their infield in catcher Jacob Stallings and second baseman Adam Frazier.

Frazier had one error in 154 chances over 41 games last season, Stallings had four in 42 games behind the plate.

What’s the chances that a pair of Gold Glove finalists would make errors in the same game, let alone the same inning? But both committed errors on back-to-back plays against the Cubs.

Frazier misplayed a grounder by Contreras to start the third. When Contreras stole second, Stallings’ throw was late and off target, allowing Contreras to advance to third. Contreras scored on a sacrifice fly by Rizzo to cut the Pirates’ lead to 3-2.

That was some April Fool’s joke.

If Ke’Bryan Hayes finishes the season with 99 RBI’s I will never forgive you Dustin Fowler for as long as I live

— Mike Nicastro (@MikedUpSports1) April 1, 2021

4. Based out: For all of the positives by the Pirates, Shelton couldn’t ignore one glaring statistic: The Pirates went 3 for 20 (.150) with runners in scoring position in the opener. They had nine hits, drew 11 walks and one hit batsman but stranded 15 runners, ending both the fifth and eighth innings with the bases loaded.

And mental mistakes on the basepaths potentially cost them two runs.

Anthony Alford drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, only to take too big of a lead and get caught in a 1-3-6-4 rundown. Pinch hitter Dustin Fowler lined Kyle Hendricks’ next pitch to right field, which could have scored the speedy Alford from first.

Fowler then made a gaffe of his own. He advanced to second on a Frazier walk, then they executed a double steal to take third. But Fowler was halfway down the third base line when Hayes lined out to right, too far to tag up. So he was stuck at third when Bryan Reynolds grounded out to first to end the inning.

“We have to look at those things. We have to get better and continue to identify things to get better at,” Shelton said. “If we had that many runners in scoring position, we need to make sure we capitalize on that. If we do that on a nightly basis, we’re gonna be in pretty good shape.”

5. Looking ahead: The Pirates have Tyler Anderson scheduled to start Saturday against Jake Arrieta and Mitch Keller on Sunday against Zach Davies. They play three games at Cincinnati, with JT Brubaker slated to face Jose De Leon on Monday night and Trevor Cahill against lefty Wade Miley on Tuesday.

That would leave Kuhl the likely starter on Wednesday at the Reds, and lines up Anderson to start Thursday. But the Pirates aren’t limiting their rotation to five pitchers — Shelton said Wil Crowe could work in as a starter — so it’s still left to be determined who will face the Cubs in the home opener at PNC Park.

The Pirates’ five-man traveling taxi squad features infielder Wilmer Difo, righty reliever Sean Poppen and lefty Chasen Shreve, as well as a couple of surprise picks in infielder Rodolfo Castro and catcher Andrew Susac. The Pirates wanted Tony Wolters in the third catcher role but he opted out of his minor league contract and elected free agency.

For all the hand-wringing over the Pirates including 2013 first-round pick Reese McGuire and fellow top-10 prospect Harold Ramirez in the Francisco Liriano trade to Toronto at the 2016 trade deadline, it was interesting to see both of their names on the transaction wire.

Ramirez didn’t make Cleveland’s Opening Day roster but was assigned to its taxi squad, while McGuire was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays on Thursday.

It will be interesting to see if the Pirates take another chance on McGuire, 26, a solid defender with a lefty bat who slashed .297/.343/.539 with seven home runs and 15 RBIs in his first 44 MLB games but hit .073 in 19 games last season. That’s especially true given that both Shelton and general manager Ben Cherington have ties to Toronto.