The Pittsburgh Pirates fell to King Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners tonight 7-4 at PNC Park. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the contest.
Takeaways
- Gregory Polanco continued to stay hot in the second half with a first inning home run in which he followed up with three more hits throughout the evening for the Pirates. Polanco’s performance Tuesday night brought his batting average up eight points from .283 to .291 as the young outfielder continues to impress this season.
- Francisco Liriano homered in the bottom of the second inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-1 early against Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners. Liriano’s second career home run boosted the left-hander’s batting average to an even .300 as he continues his trek toward a Silver Slugger.
- The bullpen for the Pirates helped keep the Mariners hitters at bay over six-and-two-thirds innings of work. Utilizing Jared Hughes, Jeff Locke, Arquimedes Caminero, Jonathon Niese, and AJ Shugel , the Pirates yielded only three hits while giving up zero runs following Liriano’s poor outing.
Throwaways
- Francisco Liriano, the pitcher, gave up seven earned runs over three plus innings of work for the Pirate. The southpaw was unable to put a three-run cushion against Hernandez to good use and stumbled to 6-10 as a result. Liriano gave up eight hits and managed to walk four while striking out three on the evening.
- The meat of the order featuring Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Jung Ho Kang left 10 runners on base for the Pirates Tuesday evening. struggles offensively continued Tuesday night. McCutchen was 0-4 at the plate with two strikeouts. Marte and Kang left three runners on base for the Pirates, not quite the production needed out of the heart of the order.
W – Felix Hernandez (5-4)
L – Francisco Liriano (6-10)
S – Steve Cishek (24)
Line of the Night
Tonight we will focus on Adam Frazier, one of the more underrated prospects to appear in Pittsburgh this season.
Frazier continues to make the most of the playing time he gets with another multi-hit game for the Pirates Tuesday night. The rookie utility player went 2-4 with a double in his start at second base. While he might not get the praise and attention highly touted prospects are receiving, Frazier is hitting .359 with an OPS of .995. As Frazier continues to follow through and produce when given the opportunity, it will be interesting to see how he continues to play into the Pirates’ plans the rest of the season.
Up Next
The Pirates take on the Mariners in game two of the two-game series tomorrow night at 7:05PM. Gerrit Cole takes the mound for the Buccos while James Paxton toes the rubber for the Mariners on what will be Star Wars Night at PNC Park. Cole enters Wednesday’s series finale with a 5-6 record and 2.99 ERA as Paxton brings a 3-4 record and 4.18 ERA to the table for the Mariners. The Force was strong with Cole in his last start as he threw six innings and allowed only one run yet it was not enough as the Phillies upended the Pirates’ ace 1-0 last Friday night.
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