Chris Archer works through eventful Pirates debut
Chris Archer’s third pitch landed squarely in the center-field seats, not quite how the newly acquired right-hander would’ve imagined his Pittsburgh Pirates debut.
But by the time Archer bounced off the mound an inning later, after striking out Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong to escape a bases-loaded jam, the crowd at PNC Park also saw glimpses of the swing-and-miss stuff that made him a trade-deadline desire.
So overall, Archer’s first night was a mix.
He needed 42 pitches to complete the first two innings Friday night, earning him an early exit in the fifth, but the two-time all-star still received a standing ovation as the Pirates defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6.
Archer’s outing was long done when Adam Frazier’s eighth-inning single to center scored Josh Harrison with the go-ahead run in a game that lasted 3 hours, 34 minutes.
“First of all, we got a big win,” Archer said. “The fans were incredible. I’ve never pitched in an atmosphere like that, and I’ve been in the big leagues almost six years. Do I wish I could have done a little bit better? Yeah. But all things considered and how hectic everything’s been, for us to pull out a victory on my first game was unbelievable.
“And the fact that 26,000-plus stayed,” he added, “and gave me a standing ‘O’ even though it wasn’t the greatest performance.”
The teams entered this three-game series tied for third in the NL Central and hunting for a wild-card playoff berth. They combined Friday for 27 hits with 15 by the Cardinals.
The Pirates, who led 6-4 when Archer left the mound, saw the Cardinals rally late for a 6-6 tie. Kyle Crick (2-1) lost the lead in the eighth but earned the win in relief.
Archer completed only 4 1/3 innings and allowed five runs, four earned, on seven hits and four walks. But he struck out six and brought at crowd of 26,773 to its feet with swing-and-miss moments to escape early jams.
The most dire came in the second, when Archer struck out Molina on an 87-mph slider to end an eight-pitch at-bat and then struck out DeJong with another slider. Both reached a full count with the bases loaded. Archer threw 57 of his 95 pitches for strikes.
“You got to see a glimpse of everything,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “I have no idea what that man had to compartmentalize and work through: adrenaline, emotion, all of it. At the end of the day, he went out and competed. That’s the thing he’s always done. He gave us everything he had.”
The Pirates acquired Archer from the Tampa Bay Rays just before Tuesday’s trade deadline in exchange for Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and a player to be named.
“I tried to keep (this start) as similar as possible, but the reality is I was a little amped up there in the beginning,” Archer said.
Newcomer Keone Kela, another trade-deadline acquisition, pitched a scoreless seventh inning in his Pirates debut. Closer Felipe Vazquez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 25th save.
Starling Marte and Frazier combined had six of the Pirates’ 12 hits, and Gregory Polanco drove in three runs. Marte and Frazier each scored twice. The Pirates scored three runs in the first, three in the third and Harrison’s winner in the eighth.
“I got to two strikes, and I didn’t want to let him beat me with his heater, so I got inside of it and found a hole up the middle,” said Frazier, whose game-winning single was against hard-throwing Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks (3-3). “It feels good to come through for the team like that.”
Archer’s first two pitches as a Pirate were called balls. Cardinals leadoff batter Matt Carpenter then drove his third, a 94-mph fastball, into the center-field seats.
In the second, the Cardinals’ first three batters reached base against Archer. Jedd Gyorko walked, Dexter Fowler singled and Yairo Munoz followed with an RBI double. After striking out Cardinals pitcher John Gant, Archer intentionally walked Carpenter to load the bases.
With two strikeouts, Archer pulled his debut back from the brink of disaster.
“Archer, he laid it all on the line, with the bases loaded and no outs and he got out of it,” Frazier said. “That’s why he’s Chris Archer.”
An inning later, Archer stranded another Cardinals runner at third with an inning-ending strikeout of Fowler. Archer ranked among the major league strikeout leaders each of the past three seasons. His 249 were fourth-best last year, but he has struggled at times this season and was on the DL for a month this summer.
He remains 3-5 with a 4.49 ERA. He still is searching for his first win since May 17.
“We saw the ability to throw some swing-and-miss stuff, for sure,” Hurdle said, “(and) the fastball velocity. I’m not going to overcook this one. He went out there, he’s pitched one game, we’ve won the game that he’s started.”
Francisco Cervelli erased two Cardinals runs at the plate. In the seventh, Polanco threw out Carpenter from right field to preserve a 6-5 lead. In the eighth, first baseman David Freese threw out Tyler O’Neill at home to keep the score tied 6-6.
Clinging to a 6-5 lead in the fifth, Pirates reliever Richard Rodriguez entered and forced Molina into an inning-ending groundout with the bases loaded. In the eighth, the Cardinals used a hit batter, a single and an RBI groundout by Gyorko to score the tying run against Crick.
Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review
staff writer. You can contact Chris at
charlan@tribweb.com or
via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.
