The Pirates won't get anywhere close to the playoffs this season—they trail the Mets by 13 games for the National League's final wild-card spot—but on Friday their fans got a glimmer of hope in the arrival of pitcher Bubba Chandler.
Chandler, 22, has long been touted among the sport's top prospects. He entered Friday having spent the entire season with Triple-A Indianapolis, going 5-6 with a 4.05 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 100 innings. However, against the Rockies, Pittsburgh issued Chandler a new challenge: pitch out of the bullpen for just the seventh time in his professional career.
He answered the bell, giving up two hits and striking out three in four innings of long relief. Those four innings sealed a 9–0 win, and saw him credited with a save.
Per Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Chandler is only the fourth player with a four-inning save in his MLB debut since the statistic's 1969 institution.
Though Chandler's future appears to be as a starter, he'll always have the memory of coming in for his MLB debut, locking down the final four innings, and throwing away the key.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Top Pirates Prospect Bubba Chandler Collects Rare Four-Inning Save in MLB Debut.