Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call: A Much Needed Homecoming

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates

If you tangle with the bull, you get the horns

Once again, the Pittsburgh Pirates locked horns with the Chicago Cubs for a three-game slate. Once again the Pirates lost the series, though the club did take the final game. It took a marvelous start from Gerrit Cole, and some gritty grind-runs-out offense to break Jon Lester‘s no-hitter bid in the seventh, but the club got the win. On the surface, it would seem like a hollow victory. All apologies to Cole, but the Cubs are clearly the best team in baseball. One thing that i truly believe yesterday’s 2-1 win will do for the Pirates is give them fire for the remaining 13 games against the Cubs.

Time to make the donuts

The Pirates return home to PNC Park for a 10-game homestand. The timing is fortunate, as are the opponents. In facing the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks, Pittsburgh can make some serious hay. The Braves are clearly the worst team in baseball, while the Diamondbacks continue to find themselves beset by injuries and ineffectiveness. The Rockies are frisky at 19-18, but the Pirates’ starting pitching staff enjoys a clear advantage over their purple counterparts.

Or do they?

Pirates rotation's 4.60 ERA ranks 19th in @MLB. A look at their starting five heading into this 10-game homestand: pic.twitter.com/uPllsrXtD8

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) May 16, 2016

It was no surprise to even the casual baseball fan that the Pirates starting rotation was struggling, but Adam’s tweet truly encapsulates how bad they’ve been.

Yesterday’s Player of the Game

After each game (win or lose), the staff at Pirates Breakdown will go to twitter to let the people be heard. We’ll ask you who you think should be deemed the Pirates player who had the most impact on the game as a whole – win or lose. Here now is yesterday’s result:

Who is your #Pirates player of the game after they hang on to beat Cubs, 2-1? #RaiseIt

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) May 15, 2016

Make sure to watch for this poll on our twitter feed after each game.

Baseball talk from around the web

• Over at Yahoo, Jeff Passan is ready to deem the upcoming free-agent class to be one of the worst in history.
• Tempers flared between the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays yesterday, and HardBall Talk is all over it.
• FanGraphs is all over MLB’s wishy-washy stance on their own slide rule.

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