DENVER — Chalk it up to an early-season run of success or whatever you like, but the Pittsburgh Pirates are feeling quite good about where they are heading to start the 2023 campaign.
During Pittsburgh’s pair of wins in Denver against the Colorado Rockies (coming off a split of a four-game set in St. Louis), Jack Suwinski has been the poster boy for the Pirates and their success so far in 2023. His three home runs in three at-bats at Coors Field played a big role in Pittsburgh’s success on Tuesday as a 5-3 victory pushed them to 11-7 on the season.
Suwinski hit a home run off a Colorado position player in the ninth inning of Monday’s win, then added back-to-back home runs in his first two at-bats off Rockies starter Jose Ureña on Tuesday. His 364-foot opposite field shot just cleared the left field fence in the second inning to get the Pirates on the board, then his 434-foot two-run homer to right field gave the visitors the lead for good.
THREE STRAIGHT AT BATS WITH A HOME RUN 🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/9I9iBkLgwY
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 19, 2023
“Just been working really hard to stay in the faith. I think that’s been super big for me,” said Suwinski, who is slashing .265/.350/.647 after his two-night power surge. “I’m coming in here and just working as hard as I can.”
It’s the second time in Suwinski’s career that he has had a stretch of three homers in this kind of time span, joining his game at PNC Park against San Francisco June 19, 2022, when he hit three homers.
“It’s been feeling good,” Suwinski said when asked about comparing this stretch to that game. “All of our prep work, and all of the guys who have been helping me, we’ve been working really hard so it’s good to see this.”
Pirates: Jack Suwinski’s power surge was much needed
Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said there is plenty going into what’s going right for the Pirates right now, even with the loss of Oneil Cruz to injury on April 9.
“Our starting pitching has been good. I think that’s the main thing,” Shelton said. “I’m really proud of the way the group plays when we’ve gotten down in games. They’ve continued to fight back. The energy in our dugout is outstanding and I think it shows by the way we’re playing on the field.”
Vince Velasquez threw 6.0 innings for the Pirates on Tuesday, marking the eighth consecutive game where a Pittsburgh starter has gone at least that far into the contest. During that stretch, Pittsburgh starters have combined for a 2.57 ERA.
“They’ve been some dogs out there lately,” Pirates closer David Bednar said of the starters. “They’ve been grinding for us and throwing strikes, getting through the sixth and putting up a lot of quality innings. Once they hand it over to us, we have that mentality that, once it’s our game, it’s over.”
It was for Bednar on Tuesday as he allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth to record his fifth save of the season.
Sure, it’s early, but between quality pitching and timely hitting, there’s a clear sense in the Pittsburgh clubhouse that this team is figuring out what it takes to win and write perhaps one of the most surprising stories of the early 2023 campaign.