Pirates Series Takeaways: Hat Tip to Keller, Middle Relief Still a Concern, City Connects

Photo provided by Eddie Provident PITTSBURGH — I feel like I spent my entire weekend at PNC Park. I kind of did, considering the marathon of a day Saturday turned into. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays decided to push the start of their game up by 30 minutes in hopes of a better chance of avoiding some bad rather.

It didn’t work. The game was paused in the bottom of the fourth inning for what ended up being a delay of two hours and 27 minutes. In addition to the lengthy delay, the game wasn’t settled until the 13th inning, when the Rays emerged victorious by a score of 8-7.

Including the delay, the game took over six and a half hours to complete. Here are a couple takeaways from a long — but always fun — weekend at the ballpark, and a series win for the Pirates. How Far He’s Come Early on in his career, it would have been unfathomable to think Mitch Keller would end up as one of the top 10 strikeout leaders in franchise history, but he now is.

Keller entered Sunday’s start against the Rays needing two strikeouts to pass Rick Rhoden (852) for sole possession of 10th place on the Pirates all time strikeouts list. He struck out five Rays in seven-strong innings to cement his spot in the top 10. “It just means I’ve been here awhile, I guess,” Keller joked following Sunday’s win.