Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – A Series SWEEP!

In their third and final game in Oakland, the Pirates found themselves in familiar territory – behind a couple of runs early. But, having been there before, they knew the way out – defeating the Oakland Athletics 6-3, sweeping the series and netting their fourth win in a row.

Takeaways

• The DH – a common refrain from many baseball fans is to ban the DH, but Gregory Polanco’s performance in that position may give fans pause. His patience at the plate on his first few at bats allowed him to see a vast number of pitches from Daniel Mengden – giving him the golden opportunity to hit a single in his third at-bat, brining Jordy Mercer and Erik Kratz home and netting RBIs 46 and 47 on the season. We never like to see him hurt – he’s still nursing that sore hamstring – but he’s slid into the role of DH for these interleague games very well. For the game in four at-bats he had 2 hits, 2 RBIs and a walk, striking out twice.
• Defensive “miscues” by the A’s really helped the Pirates today. From a missed double play to wild pitches and poor fielding in the bottom of the sixth, the A’s were as big of an issue for themselves as they were for the Pirates.
  3.) BONUS: A Bullpen That Does Its Job – AJ Schugel got the early call in the sixth, and even though he got into a tough spot – an excellent double play by David Freese got the Bucs of of the inning unscathed. Neftali Feliz came in in the seventh giving up two hits and striking out two.

Throwaways

• Liriano in the Fifth – It is obvious the Francisco Liriano is working hard to return to last season form. The broadcasters talk about it, Clint Hurdle talks about it – work is being done. And today, it really looked like maybe he was going to have a better outing than his most recent starts. And in reality, he did. But the fifth inning today was again when the troubles set in. He threw 55 pitches in the first four innings, then 30+ in the fifth alone. With one out he gave up two doubles and a single, allowing Matt McBride to score on a Coco Crisp single. He got out of the inning having given up only the one run, but still can’t shake those ghosts. His final line was 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 2 strike outs in five innings of work.
• Cranky Umpires – Is it just me or are we seeing a lot more ejections in baseball this season than in the past? Home plate umpire Sam Holbrook tossed Clint Hurdle in the sixth for arguing balls and strikes. Granted Hurdle was doing a fair amount of chirping with a smile on his face – it just feels like these guys have no tolerance anymore. This marks Hurdle’s fourth ejection for the season.

W – Francisco Liriano (5-8)
L – Daniel Mengden (1-3)
S – Mark Melancon (24)

Line of the Day

Adam Frazier is just getting a taste of life in the big leagues, but if he keeps performing at this level, he’s going to have a good long run in Black and Gold. Today he went 2 for 4 with a line out, double, triple and a ground out. He scored a run and an RBI and is batting .500 in the major leagues.
Next Up

The Pirates head to St. Louis for a four-game series against the Cardinals. Jonathan Niese (6-6) takes on Carlos Martinez (7-5) in Game 1, which starts at 2:15 tomorrow, July 4.