Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call – Out Dueled in Miami

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

Good but not great

Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates dropped game two of their series to the Miami Marlins 3-1. Gerrit Cole pitched fairly well, going 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on nine hits and striking out four. He was mostly good but his mound opponent, Jose Fernandez was even better, as he went seven innings, allowed zero runs on three hits and struck out six.

Fernandez had a fairly easy seven innings as he consistently retired the side in order, while Cole constantly had traffic on the base-paths and had to escape jams all night. Eventually all the traffic cost him and the team as the Marlins broke through in the seventh inning and held on when the Pirates made things interesting in the ninth inning.

Despite getting out pitched, Gerrit Cole still took home our official twitter player of the game poll:

Who is your player of the game from the Pirates 3-1 loss to the Miami Marlins?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) June 1, 2016

Ace or Not an Ace?

Whenever Gerrit Cole starts a game for the Pittsburgh Pirates, it begins a weird debate about whether or not Cole is an ace, which is interesting to me. Since he’s been in the league Cole has pitched to a 3.01ERA and a 2.92FIP. He’s pretty much lived up the top draft pick billing and has been good in big games and for the most part been a horse, averaging 6.2 innings per start in his career. Yet there’s a growing minority that claims Cole is “not an ace.”

The only reason I can think is because we’re in an era with insanely dominant starting pitching. Jake Arrieta, Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale are basically other worldly and as a result, Cole’s regular very good starting pitching looks way more average by comparison. Gerrit Cole is the Pirates’ best pitcher and while he isn’t Clayton Kershaw, he’s still one of the league’s top pitchers.

Baseball Talk on the Web

Former Pirates’ closer Jason Grilli has been traded from the woeful Atlanta Braves to the defending AL East champion Toronto Blue Jays.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is disappointed that the planned Pirates-Marlins series in Puerto Rico had to be canceled.

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