‘It Sucks,’ Pirates, Astros Forced to Play Waiting Game in Series Finale

PITTSBURGH — By the time the media made its way down to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ clubhouse after Thursday night’s game, a lot of the players were already gone.

It’s hard to fault anyone for getting out of there as fast as they could, considering the game between the Pirates and Houston Astros didn’t end until the early hours of Friday morning.

Rain in the forecast pushed back the start of the game by 3 hours and 22 minutes. The final out of the Astros’ 8-2 win didn’t come until just before 12:30 a.m. ET.

In other situations, the game could have been postponed, but given that the Pirates’ opponent was a team from the American League West who isn’t on the schedule the rest of the season, the decision was made to wait, wait and keep waiting it out.

“Just talking through it with the league, the Astros. Obviously, it’s the last game that they’re here…We wanted to play,” manager Don Kelly said on the decision to wait things out.

The game, which was supposed to start at 6:40 p.m. ET, didn’t start until a couple minutes past 10:00 p.m., when Pirates starter Mitch Keller took the mound after a delay that ended up being an hour longer than the eventual duration of Thursday’s game.

It was a rare rough start for Keller, who entered play having had a quality start in each of his last five outings.

The right-hander fell to 1-8 on the season after giving up six runs on eight hits in 6.1 innings. He walked a batter, struck out eight and allowed his first home run against a right-handed hitter in the Astros’ Isaac Paredes, who went deep twice in the game.

“Yeah, it’s not ideal,” Keller said on the lengthy delay. “It sucks for everybody involved. Everyone’s got to go through it. Yeah, it sucks.”

Pittsburgh batters combined to strikeout 16 times, 11 of which came against Astros starter Framber Valdez, who set a season-high.

Five of the nine Pirates’ in the starting lineup struck out multiple times. Andrew McCutchen wore a golden sombrero by going 0 for 4 with four strikeouts. Bryan Reynolds and Nick Gonzales each struck out three times. Oneil Cruz and Henry Davis two times apiece.

Jared Triolo, who was playing in just his second game over the last nine days, was the lone Pirates’ batter with multiple hits. He finished 2 for 2 with a double, a walk and scored both of the Pirates’ runs.

The rest of the lineup went 3 for 30 with three walks and 16 strikeouts, and Pittsburgh got out-hit 10-5.

The Pirates looked lethargic for most of the night while it was a much different story for their counterparts, who might’ve taken things a bit personally.

Shortly before the tarp was removed from the field, coaches and front office executives as well as the umpires met for discussion on the field. This meeting happened in the rain, after no rain fell until well after the official announcement of the delay.

Things got a bit testy between Kelly and Astros general manager Dana Brown, who grew animated before the parties went their respective ways to prepare for the game.

Why is the Astros GM down on the field arguing about the weather with Don Kelly pic.twitter.com/0Bh6tfkdMC

— Platinum Ke’Bryan (@PlatinumKey13) June 6, 2025

In the end, the game was played, and the Astros came out on top. But the story of the night was a delay that took entirely too long — for everyone.

After the game ended, Houston took the short flight to Cleveland to start a series with the Guardians on Friday night. The Pirates will welcome the Philadelphia Phillies to PNC Park over the weekend.

It’s a quick turnaround for both clubs after a rare series finale night game.

“Anytime you have delays like that – and we have them here in Pittsburgh; we know the weather is going to be crazy at times – they can be challenging,” Kelly said.