Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Game Two

The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-5 in 11 innings on Tuesday, taking the second game of the series, and the 2016 season. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from game two of 162.

• The Pirates jumped to an early lead with two runs in the second inning, before the Cardinals came back and tied the game in the top of the third. Scoring runs early in games will give the starters a cushion to work with and allow them to pitch to contact and allow the defense behind him do the job, so hopefully this trend continues.
• The hitters collected ten hits against Michael Wacha, one of the more promising young starting pitchers in the league. Newly acquired David Freese collected two hits while Andrew McCutchen added three more. After starting the last few season off cold, it’s nice to see McCutchen hitting the ball with authority early on in the season.
• The bullpen, continuing the theme from last year, dominated once Jonathan Niese left the game. Especially impressive was Kyle Lobstein, who struck out the side while working the 10th inning. While deploying Tony Watson in the seventh rather than the eighth like usual may seem odd, it made sense here. Clint Hurdle wanted Watson to face the two lefties in Kolten Wong and Matt Carpenter in what would hopefully be their final at-bats of the game. From there, he could send any of his right handed relievers out against the now predominately right handed lineup for the remainder of the game.
• Speaking of Niese, while he did strike out seven and looked good early on, he became a little shaky after the second. While the runs that scored in the third inning can be attributed to some subpar fielding, he did hit a batter and then gave up a home run in the fourth. While he is known as a pitcher who generates a lot of ground ball outs, he added seven strikeouts to his line tonight. He’ll look to build on this start and hopefully go deeper the next time out.
• In the field, the Pirates were far from perfect. Starling Marte misplayed a ball that led to a run in the third, and he and Gregory Polanco both took bad routes on other balls hit their way. Jordy Mercer made a poor throw to first after momentarily hesitating and considering going home with the throw, which led to a run.
• There were moments where the baserunning looked rusty too. In the third inning after scoring John Jaso with a double, McCutchen was thrown out at home trying to score on Freese’s single.  With no outs yet in the inning, McCutchen should have been held at third and hopefully score as his teammates kept the pressure on Wacha. But Marte grounded into a double play and further scoring chances were dashed.
• But let’s end on a positive note, the Pirates have taken two of three to start the season! And it’s against the St. Louis Cardinals, which makes it even better.

W – Kyle Lobstein (1-0)

L – Seth Maness (0-1)

Line of the night: This one is a group effort, going to the Pittsburgh bullpen

Next up: The Pirates will go for an opening series sweep tomorrow when Mike Leake and Juan Nicasio make their season debuts against each at 7:05pm. Nicasio had a great spring where he struck out more hitters (24) than innings pitched (15), so all eyes will be on him when the series finale kicks off.