Pirates Routed 11-0 by Guardians in Quinn Priester’s MLB Debut

RECAP

PITTSBURGH — Quinn Priester and Endy Rodriguez had rocky major-league debuts Monday night as the Pittsburgh Pirates were routed by the Cleveland Guardians 11-0 at PNC Park in the opener of a three-game series.

Priester, the 22-year-old right-hander, retired the first nine batters he faced. However, he ended up allowing seven runs and seven hits in 5.1 innings while striking out two and walking two.

Rodriguez, the 23-year-old catcher, went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. The Pirates were blanked on three hits by six pitchers in a bullpen game for the Guardians.

Priester and Rodriguez were called from Triple-A Indianapolis before the game with shortstop Liover Peguero. The 22-year-old Peguero made his season debut and went 0 for 3 with two punchouts.

The Pirates (41-53) have lost four straight games as well as eight of nine and 11 of 13. The Guardians (46-48) snapped their three-game losing streak.

Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez homered off Priester and Cleveland’s Josh Naylor connected agaunst Yohan Ramirez.

KEY MOMENT

Rosario’s home run was a two-run shot that opened the scoring and that was all the support the Guardians pitching staff needed.

STAR OF THE GAME

Rosario went 2 for 4 before being lifted in the seventh inning with the Guardians ahead 9-0.

STAT OF INTEREST

Priester and Rodriguez became the first pitcher and catcher to make their big-league debuts in the same game for the Pirates since Cookie Cuccurullo and Hank Camelli on Oct. 3, 1943 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Forbes Field.

NOTEWORTHY

–Rookie third baseman Jared Triolo extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a bloop single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning.

–The Pirates are hitting .207 in July while going 2-11.

–The Pirates’ 11-19 record in interleague play this season is the worst among National League teams.

–The Guardians moved ahead 25-24 in the all-time series. The teams first played in 1997, the year Major League Baseball instituted interleague play.

–Seven of the Pirates’ 12 strikeouts were looking.

–The start of the game was delayed 47 minutes because of rain.

–To make room on the roster for the three newcomers, rookie reliever Cody Bolton was optioned to Indianapolis along with catcher Jason Delay and outfielder Josh Palacios. Indianapolis outfielder Travis Swaggerty, the Pirates’ first-round draft pick in 2018, was designated for assignment to clear a space for Priester on the 40-man roster.

–The Pirates signed three picks from this year’s amateur draft, including Oregon State third baseman Garret Forrester, who was chosen in the third round. The Pirates also signed eighth-round pick Austin Strickland, a right-hander from the University of Kentucky, and 13^th-round choice Charles McAdoo, a second baseman from San Jose State.

UP NEXT

Mitch Keller (9-4, 3.31) will start for the Pirates against rookie left-hander Logan Allen (3-2, 3.47) at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday.

It will be Keller’s first outing since pitching one inning in last Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Seattle. Allen is expected to be recalled from Triple-A Columbus, where he is 0-0 with a 3.10 ERA in five starts.