Pirates’ Rich Hill is an Ageless Wonder (+)
PITTSBURGH — At 43 years old, Rich Hill is baseball’s oldest player, but you never would have known it based on his performance on Friday night at PNC Park.
The Pirates’ left-hander threw a season-high seven innings in their 14-7 win over the New York Mets. it took Hill 119 pitches to do so.
The 119 pitches are the second-most in a game in Hill’s career, behind only a 120-pitch showing in 2006, when Hill was a 26-year-old. It’s also the most for a Pirates’ pitcher in a game since James McDonald threw 120 against the Minnesota Twins in 2012.
“You are pitching until the manager takes the ball from your hands. Shelty let me go out there and let me finish that seventh inning which obviously I’m thankful for,” Hill said. “The work that you do day-in and day-out, that fifth day when you come in to pitch is a culmination of that… You put yourself in position to succeed because of the work.”
It wasn’t only that Hill threw as many pitches in a season-high innings, it’s that he was extremely effective in doing so.
Hill allowed only a pair of runs on seven hits. He walked two batters and sat down seven on strikes.
“He executed the whole game. He gave up the home run to Lindor on a hanging breaking ball. Other than that, he was really good all game long. Both sides of the plate with all of his pitches,” manager Derek Shelton said.
It was an old-school outing from an old-school pitcher. Hill is doing everything the Pirates could have hoped for when they signed him to a one-year deal as a free agent in the offseason.
Not only is he providing valued veteran leadership to a relatively young team, but he’s been effective. Thanks to his performance on Friday, Hill is now 6-5 with a 4.23 ERA across his first 13 starts of the season for the Pirates.
Hill’s performance this season has been key for the Pirates’ success. Considering two members of the Pirates’ preseason rotation in Vince Velasquez and JT Brubaker are lost for the season, Hill’s consistency has been paramount.
“He’s been doing it for 15-20 years, so he knows what it looked like,” Ke’Bryan Hayes said. “At the end of the day he’s just a fierce competitor. It’s pretty fun to watch.”
As the season progresses, the Pirates will continue to rely on their veteran to give the team a chance to win every fifth day.
Hill’s ability to turn back time has been impressive, but his experience can help this Pirates’ team go through the grind of a 162-game season. The veteran southpaw knows what it will take.
“We are going to have runs of wins. We are going to have runs of losses. Either way it’s how you handle both of them. How you consistently come to the ballpark every day and put forth that effort.”