Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Doomed by the big inning

The Pittsburgh Pirates hung around the Arizona Diamondbacks for most of the game on Saturday, but a five run inning by Arizona put the game out of reach, handing the Pirates a 7-1 loss and putting their record back at .500. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the game.

Takeaways

• Sean Rodriguez continues to hit, slugging his third home run of the season and looking like a completely different hitter. With his third home run of the season, he is on pace to easily surpass the five he hit last year. He also has walked six times, whereas last season he only took five free bases. With the impending arrival of Jung ho Kang, Clint Hurdle is going to have a very good problem to have in a few weeks. Playing the hot hand will be difficult since so many of the hitters are hitting the ball with authority.
• John Jaso led the game off with a double, giving him hits in 12 consecutive games. Jaso may not be a stereotypical lead off hitter due to his lack of speed, but he more than makes up for it with his discerning eye at the plate. If he doesn’t already, he is going to quickly gain a reputation around the National League as one of the smarter hitters to come to the plate. His line of .361/.430/.492 up to this point is outstanding for any hitter, not just one at the top of the lineup.

Throwaways

• Juan Nicasio did not necessarily have a bad outing, he gave Clint Hurdle five innings and kept the Pirates in the game while he was on the mound. The problem was that it took him 101 pitches to finish five innings and issued four walks. He was one inning shy of registering a quality start, so that shows he was fairly effective, but unfortunately ended up on the wrong end in this game.
• A quick look at the lineup the Pirates put together every night shows many .300 hitters. If there is one hitter that needs to improve, it’s Andrew McCutchen. He was hitless in his three trips to the plate and registered two strikeouts. He is now slashing .217/.341/.362, well below his career averages. Since the other hitters in the lineup are doing so well on a daily basis, McCutchen’s lack of production hasn’t been as glaring. But as the team’s new number two hitter, he’ll need to start hitting and giving the hitters behind him opportunities to drive him in.

W – Rubby De La Rosa (2-3)

L – Juan Nicasio (2-2)

Line of the night: Unfortunately for tonight’s line of the night, it’s not pretty. Let’s take a look at A.J. Shugel‘s performance:

Shugel pitched 1.1 innings and allowed four hits and five runs, four of which were earned. The game was still well within reach and Shugel did retire all the hitters he faced in the seventh, but the eighth inning was when the game got out of hand. Jared Hughes has been rehabbing in Indianapolis, so once he is ready to join the team someone will have to go. Shugel certainly will be in consideration for a demotion of he has any more appearances like he did on Saturday.

Up next: The three game series wraps up on Sunday when lefties Francisco Liriano and Robbie Ray take the hill for the Pirates and Diamondbacks. Liriano will try to bounce back from a sub par outing against the Padres, when he didn’t finish five innings and walked more (5) than he struck out (4). The Pittsburgh hitters will be facing a tough opponent in Ray, who brings an ERA under two into the game and is striking out almost a hitter per inning.