Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – The Horse is Twitching

The Pittsburgh Pirates drop another one to the Phillies, 6 – 2, bringing their record for the season to 70-74 and playoff hopes a near distant memory.

The loss comes after lackluster fielding and quiet bats dominated the night – much like they have this series. The team is now 2-1 in this series, and with each loss, the Bucs’ hopes for October baseball fade – not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Takeaways

• Cutch’s Homer – Late as it may be in the season, Andrew McCutchen‘s home run tonight is a good sign that he’s still moving along out of his epic slump. A little too late, but a sign that there really is nothing wrong with former MVP at all.
• The Bullpen – 13 men strong at this point, the Pirates Bullpen is suddenly bubbling over with available pitchers. When Brault was pulled out in the third, his teammates kept the damage to a minimum. Zach Phillips got him out of the inning by striking out the final batter, then Drew Hutchison came in and in two gave up 4 hits, 1 run and struck out 2. Wade LeBlanc then came in to pitch 2 innings, giving up 2 hits and striking out 3.

Throwaways

• Sending Sean Rodriguez home in the 9th on Matt Joyce‘s single up the middle. Rodriguez was called out at home, as he was, and rally was killed, the run – pointless. As Pirates announcer Greg Brown said, “That just kind of sums up this whole Pirates season.”
• Sloppy Fielding – the 3rd inning alone featured gaffes by Adam Frazier and David Freese. When the bats are sleepy, defense needs to be a whole lot sharper than it was tonight.
• Steven Brault out early – Brault only lasted 3 2/3 innings tonight, giving up 9 hits and 5 runs, 3 earned and striking out 3. Even with a flush bullpen, the Pirates need their starters to go longer.

W – Jake Thompson (2-5)
L – Steven Brault (0-3)
S – Jeanmar Gomez 37

Line of the Night

Andrew McCutchen was a light in the Pirates night of shadows, in 4 at-bats he scored 1 run, had 2 hits and had 1 RBI.

Player of the Game

Hop on over to our twitter feed to cast your vote for tonight’s Player Of The Game!

#Pirates fall to the #Phillies 6-2 tonight. Who is your Player of the Game?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) September 15, 2016

Next Up
The Pirates and Brewers finish out this four-game series at 7:05 pm. Chad Kuhl (3-3) will try to lead the Bucs to a series tie over the Phillies’ Jerad Eickoff (10-13).