Dennis

Santana

Konnor Griffin’s fielding error started the ninth inning inauspiciously. Soto was able to get Justin Crawford, but walked Adolis García and allowed a ground-ball single to Trea Turner to load the bases. Soto then walked in a run against Kyle Schwarber and allowed a two-RBI ‘single’ to Bryce Harper that was reviewed for a home run and went 388 feet off the top of the wall. There were silver linings here for Soto. One of them is that he was able to exit the inning when Schwarber was thrown out at third on a cutoff play, and he induced an Alec Bohm flyout. Another is that Dennis Santana was absolutely roasted to take the loss in the tenth inning, not even retiring a single batter. Soto should still have plenty of rope as Pittsburgh’s closer.

Dennis Santana got the first two outs in the eighth, but he allowed a couple of hits in the process, which led to the Pirates replacing him with Soto against lefty Drew Gilbert. Quite simply, Soto is the reliever the Pirates have the most faith in at the moment.

Soto has three wins and two saves in a rather spectacular start to his season. He’s not the Pirates’ sole closer right now, but with a 1.50 ERA in 18 innings, he’s made a case for getting the nod over Dennis Santana. Alas, he has a long history of disappointing when faced with elevated expectations.

Santana was tasked with preserving a two-run lead in the final frame after six Pirates relievers combined for eight scoreless frames to open the contest. He served up back-to-back solo homers to Pedro Pagés and JJ Wetherholt. Thing spiralled immediately afterwards as he allowed three consecutive batters to reach before coughing up a go-ahead two-run double to José Fermín.

Santana finished the job for the Pirates, but it came in an 8-4 game so there’s no save for the right-hander. He did pick up a pair of strikeouts without allowing a hit, however, and his ERA for the first three weeks of the season is a miniscule 0.75. That’ll work.

It’s still notable that with similar workloads over the last few days, it was Santana and not Gregory Soto that took the mound at the start of the tenth inning. Santana did not exactly reward the confidence by leaving a pitch right in the middle of the plate for the go-ahead RBI single by James Wood. The committee should remain interesting in Pittsburgh, but perhaps this was a tell-tale sign of trust we should attach some real meaning to.

Is Santana securely back as the Pirates’ closer? He’s now received their last three save opportunities and converted two of them after it looked like Gregory Soto could’ve been zeroing in on the role. Instead, the left-handed Soto pitched the eighth inning of this game and faced lefties James Wood and Daylen Lile. Santana has the inside track at the moment, but expect Pittsburgh to still take the situation into account as to who gets the opportunities for saves.

Santana walked Dansby Swanson with one out and Carson Kelly with two outs before Alex Bregman snuck a liner into center field for a game-tying hit. It’s the first run Santana has allowed in eight innings this season, and he’s still probably the favorite for saves in a Pirates closing situation that still might be something of a committee. Yohan Ramírez might be adding his name to the mix after working scoreless 10th and 11th innings for a win today.

Gregory Soto, who has shared the late-game duties with Santana this season, worked a scoreless eighth inning ahead of him, though he did walk a pair of batters. Santana then took over and made quick work of the Cubs, needing just 13 pitches (nine strikes) to dispatch of the Cubs including strikeouts of Dansby Swanson and Michael Busch. The 29-year-old hurler has yet to allow a run over seven innings on the season while posting a minuscule 0.43 WHIP and a 6/2 K/BB ratio.

This would have been a Dennis Santana blurb, as he was certainly going to follow Soto and close tonight, but the Pirates busted out for five runs in the bottom of the eighth and then used Yohan Ramírez to finish a 7-1 win. Santana will now almost certainly be in line to close again tomorrow, since Soto has worked back-to-back days and Santana hasn’t worked since Saturday.