Pirates celebrate Wil Crowe's 1st save as converted starter thrives in new relief role

Wil Crowe attempted to fix his hair, still wet after rinsing the residue from the celebratory shower that was courtesy of his Pittsburgh Pirates teammates to commemorate his first major league save.

“Everything under the sun has been poured on me in the last 20 minutes,” Crowe said Wednesday afternoon in the clubhouse after a 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. “Yeah, it’s always worth it. It’s always fun. We always have a good time in here when something like that happens for anybody. It was to me today, but we always let that person feel it. It was good.”

After registering four strikeouts, one hit and one walk in three scoreless innings, Crowe shrugged over what Pirates manager Derek Shelton suggested that color analyst Bob Walk would be so excited about.

“I was starting before, so the length isn’t an issue,” Crowe said. “But, yeah, it’s awesome. It’s an accomplishment, so put it in the memory bank and keep doing what I’m doing.”

Wil Crowe picked up his 1st Major League save this afternoon, going 3 scoreless innings, allowing just 1 hit while striking out 4.

He spoke with Robby Incmikoski after the @Pirates 6-2 win over the Cubs. pic.twitter.com/BvDfHq4tDP

— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) April 13, 2022

Crowe, 27, made a team-high 25 starts for the Pirates last season — going 4-8 with a 5.48 ERA in 116 2/3 innings — but was moved to a relief role as the team tinkers with a non-traditional approach to its pitching staff after a shortened spring training following the 99-day lockout.

Shelton complimented Crowe for handling the transition “extremely well,” knowing that some starters would go grudgingly. The reaction of his teammates is telling. Outfielder Ben Gamel couldn’t help but see a drastic change in Crowe’s effectiveness as a reliever.

“It’s different out of the bullpen,” Gamel said. “No knock on him as a starter, but we have the utmost confidence in him out there.”

Shelton said Crowe’s preference not to take days off made him a perfect candidate for a relief role. His four-pitch repertoire allows the Pirates to use Crowe as a multiple-inning reliever, and his performance against the Cubs proved he can handle a late-inning leverage situation.

“He likes to throw. I know that sounds weird, but he was one of those starters that threw a lot between his starts,” Shelton said. “When you have a guy like that, the ability to bounce back shows up. It was one of the things when we started to identify who was going to start and who was going to pitch in these different roles because of his ability to bounce back, because of his ability to maintain his stuff — which is really rare for starters — we thought he would fit really well in a role like this.”

Crowe hasn’t allowed a run in three appearances, with a pair of two-inning showings in the opening series at St. Louis. He’s found that with throwing fewer innings, he can be more aggressive, which allows his four-seam fastball, slider and change-up to play up. He complements them with a sinker.

Against the Cubs, Crowe threw 32 of his 50 pitches for strikes, generating 26 swings, six whiffs and six called strikes, and fanned four of the final six batters he faced. He got Patrick Wisdom and Jonathan Villar swinging for the game’s final two outs.

“I felt like I had everything going,” said Crowe, who has nine strikeouts in seven innings. “I threw a couple sliders that were probably up in the zone, but got some takes on them, and yeah, being able to throw all the pitches, the slider and the change-up, pair them with the two-seam and four-seam, it’s what I’ve got to do, and it’s how I’ve been going and how I’m going to keep going about it.”

Crowe knows he has to switch up his routine after pitching only once every five days, but the biggest change is coming out of the bullpen seeking a save instead of trying to make a quality start.

“It’s a different role for me,” Crowe said, “but I’m adjusting to it and I’m enjoying it.”