Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Extra Innings at the Coliseum

The Pittsburgh Pirates assured themselves a series win against the Oakland A’s, with a 4-2 win that went 10 innings. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the 81st game of the season.

Takeaways

• Chad Kuhl had an excellent second start in his career. In his first start he walked four but on Saturday he did not hand out a free pass. He also had much better control, throwing 68% of his 91 pitches for strikes. This was a great start to follow his debut with and he will look to continue to improve in his next start which should be Thursday afternoon in St. Louis.
• The bullpen had another fantastic game, keeping the A’s off the board for four innings. Neftali Feliz, Tony Watson, Juan Nicasio and Mark Melancon struck out seven and only walked two. After the struggles that the team went through the last few weeks, it was nice to see a second consecutive night where the starter and bullpen all did their job.

Throwaways

• In the bottom of the fifth Josh Reddick hit a ball deep to right field and it somehow landed directly in a small opening at the bottom of the wall. Obviously this was the preferred outcome for the Pirates because the umpires ruled the hit a double and Jed Lowrie could not score on the play. But this is a throwaway because it’s the 21st century and the the A’s ballpark is still in the 20th century. There should not be holes or gaps in any wall on a MLB field. That seems to be pretty obvious.
• Erik Kratz collected just his third hit since joining the Pirates, giving him a slash line of .079/.079/.158. With Francisco Cervelli still recovering from the broken hamate bone in his hand, the duo of Kratz and Chris Stewart leave much to be desired. If Cervelli suffers any setbacks while he works his way back, the team needs to find a better option behind the plate to remain in contention.

W – Juan Nicasio (6-6)

L – Daniel Coulombe (1-1)

S – Mark Melancon (23)

Line of the Night

Chad Kuhl had a very good second start in his career on Saturday. Let’s take a closer look.

Kuhl went six innings, one more than he did in his start last Sunday. He also did not walk anyone as opposed to the four walks he issued in his first MLB outing. He may have struck out less batters than the last time, more importantly he limited his opponent to just two runs this time. Hopefully he builds on this start the next time out and solidifies his spot in the rotation, even when Gerrit Cole returns.

Up Next

The three game series wraps up on Sunday at 4:05pm when the Pirates send Francisco Liriano (4-8, 5.33) to the mound in opposition of Daniel Mengden (1-3, 2.81). Liriano has not won since he beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 24th and since then opponents have scored at least four runs when he is on the mound. Mengden will make his fifth start of the season, and has registered quality starts in three of his four outings in 2016.