It’s a new era of Pirates baseball in Pittsburgh.

After the news yesterday that the Pirates had relieved manager Derek Shelton of his duties, the club promoted bench coach Don Kelly to that role.

The ex-big leaguer had twice managed a game for the Pirates, once in 2023 and once earlier in May, but now Kelly is the official manager for this team. General manager Ben Cherington said Kelly’s role as manager is “permanent for 2025,” meaning Kelly will have some time to establish himself in the dugout.

But for his sake, and the team’s, the Pirates need to start stringing wins together immediately. At 12-26, the Pirates have a mighty tall order ahead of them to accomplish literally anything this season.

It’s just one game, but that work on a comeback started today with a 3-1 win.

The one big decision that Kelly had to make pre-game paid off. The team’s original lineup featured Tommy Pham in left field and batting eighth for the Pirates. But a last minute substitution saw Alexander Canario take Pham’s spot in the lineup.

On the surface, that’s not a needle-moving change. Pham is slashing .183/.259/.221 on the season in 116 plate appearances. Meanwhile, Canario was slashing .122/.200/.195 in 45 plate appearances heading into this game, making an argument that subbing out Pham for Canario is a downgrade.

But whether it was luck or some weird managerial instinct by Kelly, Canario made sure to make Kelly look good.