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First flash of greatness
Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates beat up on the Cincinnati Reds 12-3. However, most people are not talking about the offensive explosion. They are talking about the best start of Tyler Glasnow‘s MLB career to date. In the first inning, we saw the bad Glasnow. He allowed three runs via a three-run home run by Joey Votto. I think most people were ready to send Glasnow back to Triple-A right there but following that, you saw the good from Glasnow.
He threw five shutout innings after the rough first. He did walk four but struck out five and mostly kept the Reds in check. Glasnow still has plenty of work to do but last night was the first sign that he can be a steady contributor at the big league level. I repeat this a lot but baseball is a funny game. Either it has surprised you or it’s about to. Glasnow looked so awful in the first and because it was the Reds, we had flashbacks to his terrible first start against them back in early April. The fact he was able to power through a Votto home run and simply move on shows you the kid is mentally tough. He has not fully realized his potential but the mental makeup is developing more than perhaps any of us realized.
Hometown Hero
The other storyline from last night was Cincinnati Kid, Josh Harrison homering against his hometown team once again. Harrison hit a three-run home run in the Pirates six-run, fourth inning. This following two solo home runs in Monday’s game. Great American Ballpark can make any player look stronger than they actually are but it still has to feel amazing for Harrison to hit multiple home runs in his hometown.
Josh Harrison is for some reason a polarizing player to Pirates’ fans. I think a lot of it stems from replacing a local hero in Neil Walker. It also didn’t help that he had a fairly mediocre season in 2016. However, it’s impossible to deny that Harrison is bouncing back in a big way. Harrison is currently slashing .313/.383/.506/.889, which would be his best season since his breakout 2014 All-Star campaign. He also already matched his 2016 home run total in only 24 games. I could throw numbers at you all day but to put it bluntly, he simply LOOKS more like the 2014 version. This is good news for the Pirates as they need all the offensive help they can get.
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