The Pittsburgh Pirates landed a shot across the bow of one of their biggest bullies last night.
Last night, the Pittsburgh Pirates took home an 8-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.
That alone could be a worthy headline considering the north shore-men compiled a 1-8 record against the north-siders going into the game.
Yet, the biggest story line was the exorcising of some considerable demons haunting the club. The team finally stood up to the bully, and everyone knows that when you stand up to a bully, they lose their power.
The Case of Perception v. Reality
Jake Arrieta‘s dominance of the Pittsburgh Pirates was so complete that many fans were conditioned to expect a loss. This predisposition existed even though Arrieta came into the game looking rather un-Arrieta like. Over his three previous starts, the right-hander failed to register a quality start, and his ERA checked in at a swollen 5.87 over that span.
The funny thing about perception versus reality is that sometimes it takes something to snap back to a more logical way of thinking. Sean Rodriguez and David Freese saw to that. Their home runs in the second inning of yesterday’s game gave notice to fans that this team will not go quietly against the NL Cy Young winner.
The Mechanics of Solving Arrieta
The Pittsburgh Pirates hitters did a great job last night in showing patience against Arrieta’s sinking fastball. As per Brooks Baseball, the right-hander offered 44 sinkers. The Pirates whiffed on just four of them, and did a fantastic job with putting it in play. Arrieta lives off of this pitch – he threw just five four seam fastballs – and when it is not working, his other pitches lose effectiveness.
On two-strike counts, Arrieta threw the sinker nine times, and the Pirates showed much improved patience, whiffing at one pitch, fouling another and sitting back for five balls. Compare this to Arreita’s normal strike rate of 27.1 percent on the pitch in x-2 counts, and you can see a team that has come a long way since looking absolutely befuddled against it in the 2015 NL Wild Card game.
The team did a lot of other things well, but they took away Arrieta’s biggest strength. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
A Leader Leads
Andrew McCutchen had three hits last night. While his hits didn’t let the team breathe as much as Freese’s early home run or blow the lid off of the place like Rodriguez’s bomb, his night had a quiet, steady feel to it that might propel the 2013 NL MVP into a better second half.
In this way, McCutchen may have shown his teammates that the reports of this team’s demise were not only greatly exaggerated, but flat-out wrong.
I can’t think of a better place to end this column by quoting the man himself, as told to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”Andrew McCutchen” link=”” color=”#000000″ class=”” size=””]You might see me struggle, but you won’t see me quit. I’m not in this game to give up. I’ve been playing too long to droop my head and kick rocks, you know? I’m going to keep going, ain’t no quit. I’m going to keep working and through it all, stay humble.[/perfectpullquote]Last night may have proven that the Pittsburgh Pirates are done drooping their heads against Arrieta and the Chicago Cubs.
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