Each Monday for the rest of the season, Pirates Breakdown will give you their Pittsburgh Pirates of the Week. This week we picked four players who did an outstanding job from July 18-24.
Last week the Pittsburgh Pirates played two series of three games against the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies. In those six games, the Pirates went 4-2 and saw some great performances from their players. Here are our choices for the top four players from last week.
Jameson Taillon
Jameson Taillon was a two start pitcher last week an did well overall. On July 19th Taillon pitched six innings against the Brewers and allowed just one run on five hits to go along with three strikeouts. Unfortunately he did not factor into the decision, but fortunately was OK after taking a line drive off of the back of the head. His second start of the week came on Sunday against the Phillies and while in general it was good, he again did not factor into the decision. Like his previous start, he went six innings and allowed no walks. The Phillies did score four runs on eight hits but Taillon did strike out seven in the process.
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Francisco Liriano
Francisco Liriano is the second pitcher to make the list this week. While he only had one start, he made it memorable. Lirano took on the Brewers on July 21st and earned his sixth win of the season and in the process also brought his season ERA under five. In six and two third innings on Thursday, striking out a whopping 13 hitters. This start was definitely a step in the right direction as Liriano has struggled at times during the season.
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David Freese
David Freese made the list because he had a few clutch hits during the past week and because he continues to play fantastic defense. Freese knocked in runs in three different games last week and also added two more doubles to his season total on July 20th. While Freese only collected four hits in 20 at-bats last week, he is on the list because of the timely fashion of many of his hits and his ability to play hard in the field.
[mlbvideo id=”961115583″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /] [table id=157 /]Matt Joyce
The second position player to make the list is Matt Joyce, who didn’t receive the number of at-bats that Freese did last week, but certainly did a lot of damage with his bat. Joyce was called upon to start the game on July 21st when Starling Marte was unable to and went on to slug the first of two home runs in the week. Both he and Freese have shown tremendous value this season and allow Clint Hurdle to give players the day off while not sacrificing much quality.
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And now we want to hear from you! Which player did you feel had the best last week?
For a new feature to debut tomorrow, we want to know your pick for the #Pirates Player of the Week
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) July 24, 2016
That does it for this week’s Pittsburgh Pirates of the week. Who do you feel is primed for a big week? Let us know in the comments or on twitter!
Featured Photo Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
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