CINCINNATI — With one Perez on the shelf, the Pirates promoted another from Class AAA Indianapolis before the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Injured while running the bases in the eighth inning of the first game, the Pirates put Roberto Perez on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain before the nightcap. Taking his place on the roster will be Michael Perez, their backup to Jacob Stallings last year whose contract was selected from Class AAA Indianapolis.
To make room for Perez on the 40-man roster, the Pirates designated Sam Howard for assignment.
The move did not come as a surprise after Roberto Perez went down in a heap around second base while trying to go first to third on a Ben Gamel single. Perez appeared to be in considerable pain postgame.
Indianapolis is only about an hour and 40 minutes from Cincinnati, which made it an easy trip for Michael Perez.
There’s no word at this point on the severity of Roberto Perez’s hamstring, aside from it being serious enough to force him to sit out for 10 days. Getting the majority of the reps in his place will be Andrew Knapp, who was ejected from the first game of the doubleheader before starting the second.
Knapp has appeared in eight games this season as Roberto Perez’s backup, hitting .190 with a .499 OPS. He spent the first five years of his career with the Phillies and was in camp with the Reds before the Pirates signed him to a one-year deal on opening day.
The Pirates designated Michael Perez for assignment last November to create an additional spot on the 40-man roster. They brought him to spring training on a non-roster deal. Perez was hitting .294 with a .909 OPS in eight games with the Indians, which included a pair of home runs.
Howard had been dealing with a mid-back muscle sprain and joined the MLB club in late April. He made three appearances and had a 9.00 ERA and four walks in just two innings.
Brubaker shines
Lost in the wreckage of Roberto Perez’s hamstring injury in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader was a really good outing from JT Brubaker, who went five innings and matched his career high with nine strikeouts.
Brubaker’s most impressive sequence came in the fifth inning, with two on and one out, a mess the right-hander created for himself with a pair of walks. He got out of it by striking out second baseman Brandon Drury and designated hitter Tommy Pham looking, both on sinkers.
The sinker worked for Brubaker, but so did his slider. Brubaker actually looked a lot better than he did during his first two starts of the season, when he worked a total of 7⅓ innings, allowing eight earned runs and walked seven.
“The slider was good,” manager Derek Shelton said. “He executed and gave us a chance. I thought he threw the ball really well.”
Also lost …
Ben Gamel and Ke’Bryan Hayes saw continuations of a couple things that happened Wednesday in Detroit — one good, the other bad.
After going 5 for 8 with a double, triple and three RBIs to raise his batting average from .230 to .275, Gamel was 3 for 4 with a double, RBI and run scored against the Reds, bumping his batting average up to .301 on the season.
Meanwhile, Hayes tried to make a barehand play in the first and threw wildly to first base for his fourth error in 24 games this season. That matches his total from the first 119 games of his career.
The other side
As if the loss of Perez wasn’t painful enough, how about what happened during the key at-bat of the game? That’s when Tyler Stephenson hit a bases-loaded double off Wil Crowe to push the Reds in front, 4-2.
After getting to 0-2, Crowe missed in a similar spot — low and outside — with three consecutive sliders, pitches that likely could’ve been framed into strikes had Perez been catching.
“I felt like I got a little lucky with [Josh] VanMeter being back there,” Stephenson said. “Crowe actually made some good pitches at the bottom of the zone that I took. Going back, they might have been there.”
The Reds were actually quite impressed by the job VanMeter — who played in Cincinnati — did after Andrew Knapp was ejected. Stephenson shared a few laughs with VanMeter when each came to the plate in the late innings.
“When I went up to hit, I told him to take it to arbitration, so he could get paid a little more,” Stephenson said. “When he came up his last at-bat, he was like, ‘Man, my legs are already hurting.’ It was funny.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: May 7, 2022, 10:49 p.m.
