Howard debuts with Pirates, earns third MLB win

Cartersville native Sam Howard made his debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates this past week and contributed with four solid appearances for his new club. Howard, who spent the first six years of his professional career in the Colorado Rockies organization, allowed four hits and two walks in five innings of work. The southpaw also earned his first win of the season last Thursday when the Pirates won in “walk-off” fashion over the Minnesota Twins. The former Georgia Southern hurler currently holds a 1.80 ERA and 1.20 WHIP on the season. Howard was claimed off waivers by Pittsburgh during the offseason and is assigned to the Pirates’ 40-man roster although he was not called up to join the major league club until last week. The Pirates, who have struggled to a 3-13 start in 2020, called up Howard on August 2. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound local product tossed a pair of scoreless frames across the ninth and tenth innings August 2 with three strikeouts and two walks in a road game at the Chicago Cubs. He then totaled a pair of innings across two appearances against the Twins, picking up the win on August 6. Last Saturday he gave up an earned run on two hits in a seventh inning home appearance against Detroit. He did strikeout a pair of Tigers. The 27-year-old, who was initially drafted out of high school before attending GSU, was a third-round pick in 2014 by Colorado. He is now 3-0 in his MLB career with 31 strikeouts in 28 innings.