Pittsburgh Pirates Can’t Turn Things Around – Drop Series Finale to Cards 8-3
The Pittsburgh Pirates have hit a rough patch of late – dropping all three games in the series against division rivals the St. Louis Cardinals and 12 out of their last 16. It’s the first series sweep at PNC for the Cards since August 2009 and a serious low-point to the Bucs’ season thus far.
Takeaways
- Hot Coffee – The Buccos difficult times nothwithstanding, Gregory Polanco continues his hot streak – getting a hit and scoring one run in 4 at bats. El Coffee can’t do it on his own, though.
- The Freeser – David Freese was a bright spot in a very very dark game/series against his former team, churning out key plays in the field to help keep the Pirates from total embarrassment in today’s game. In four at bats, he scored one run, got one RBI and two hits. He’s been a steady, dependable face offensively and defensively for the Pirates so far in 2016 and must be making it very hard for Hurdle to sit him down to give Jung Ho Kang – who is also delivering some quality baseball – some time at third.
Throwaways
- Catching – all due respect to Erik Kratz for the crazy-hard task he’s facing right now. Come in, start ASAP without getting to know any of the staff and make a difference. A passed ball, almost got a call overturned for blocking the plate…this Pirates team went from having respectable depth at catching to bleeding profusely – FAST! It’s understandable that it will take time for Kratz to acclimate and kudos to Huntington for reacting quickly and acquiring a catcher and fast – but am I alone here in wishing that Jaso could throw on the gear and help the team out in a pinch?
- Pitching – Niese didn’t have a good day, giving up 11 hits, eight runs, 2 homers and walking one in 5 1/3 innings pitched. With Cole facing whatever is going on with him and Liriano looking very human of late – Niese has been the go-to pitcher for the team. But not tonight. He did strike out five, but that’s not much help when you’re throwing grapefruit. Aside from that, it was his failed attempt to field a grounder by Jhonny Peralta that broke up what could have been a double-play when the game was 4 – 2 that opened up the floodgates for the Cards offense.
- BONUS: Cutch ain’t Clutch – It’s all been said before. Something isn’t right with face-of-the-franchise Andrew McCutchen. And it isn’t as if he doesn’t know it – it’s pretty obvious he is putting as much, if not more, pressure on himself than any of the fair-weather fans or sports media talking heads put together. And it’s not resulting in much production. Today, he went 0 for four and 1 for 14 in the series.
W– Mike Leake (5-4)
L– Jonathan Niese (6-3)
Line of the Day
This should be Line of the Series – Starling Marte tonight had two hits in four at-bats and one RBI. Last night, in four at-bats he had three hits – half of the total Pirates hits for the night – and in Friday’s game, he had two of the team total eight hits.
Next Up
As Clint Hurdle would say, the Pirates need to shower well, rest up and be back at it Tuesday against the Mets in New York. Gerrit Cole was originally slated to take the mound, and the “official” word according to MLB is the pitcher is now TBD. It is STRONGLY believed that Jameson Taillon will make his road debut instead, which means Cole will have to be moved to the DL in order to call Taillon back up before his mandatory 10-days in the minors is up. Keep your eyes on that jersey number – 50 – which is what he wore in his debut. It is widely considered the “temp” number. If his stay up in the bigs is expected to be longer, as many think it will be, he may get a more unique number. Whoever it is pitching for the Pirates will be facing Jacob deGrom (3-2).
Pirates Breakdown sends our sincerest get well wishes to Mets Manager Terry Collins, who was admitted to the hospital in Milwaukee before the Mets game against the Brewers today for an undisclosed illness. He is reportedly being kept overnight.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
