In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates continued their offensive surge last night, topping the Rockies 9-4 in Colorado. Gerrit Cole had an okay start at best, but, as per usual, the offense kept the team in the game. The bullpen surprisingly kept the Rockies off the scoreboard, despite allowing four free passes.
The Pirates notched hits as a team, but the story of the game had to be Andrew McCutchen, coming off a poor start to the season and an off day on Monday. McCutchen hit three home runs, driving in five runs in the process. he also raised his average to .238. Outside of David Freese, he is the only regular in the lineup not hitting at least .300 for the season. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of Cutch’s early season slump.
It seems like Gerrit Cole hasn’t had the best start to the season. At one point in the game last night, Cole had thrown 20 straight fastballs, and he was eventually beat at the plate. Maybe he still has concerns about the injury that kept him from starting the year in Pittsburgh. Or maybe he just thought that was the best way to get the Rockies’ batters out. But although his start to the year hasn’t been ideal, he still has a 2.78 ERA, which leads the entire team (bullpen included). It may be safe to say he’s not the issue at this point.
In other news, it seems like every Pirates’ prospect is killing it in the minors. Tyler Glasnow has a 2.57 ERA in four starts, Jameson Taillon has a 1.65 ERA in three starts, Alen Hanson is batting .368 with an OPS of .891 in 13 games, and Josh Bell is batting .281 with an OPS of .910 in 17 games. The future certainly looks bright for the Pirates at the moment.
Yesterday’s player of the game
After each game, Pirates Breakdown will put out a poll asking readers for a player of the game. Here now are the results from last night’s poll (as if there was any doubt):
The Pirates beat the Rockies 9-4, who is your player of the game? (Like we really have to ask)
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) April 27, 2016
Make sure to watch for this poll on our twitter feed after each game.
Baseball Talk on the Web
- Tyler Collins of the Detroit Tigers, who flipped off and cursed at the crowd after missing a fly ball the other night, won’t be suspended for that incident.
- Scouts weigh in on John Jaso as the Pirates’ new leadoff man. Hint: one is a fan, one isn’t.
- Jake Arrieta laughs off any PED talk that seems to have surfaced in the smallest of circles about him.
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