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Baseball is Weird
Yesterday the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0. The game featured some fantastic pitching from Chad Kuhl. He bounced back big time from his horrible last start. He went five innings, allowed zero runs on one hit with five strikeouts.
Chad Kuhl has been far from consistent in 2017. His 5.85ERA speaks for that but yesterday he was truly excellent. At no point in the game did the Phillies look comfortable. Kuhl isn’t really a stuff pitcher, so at times he is going to be hittable. The Phillies aren’t exactly an offensive giant but they are still a Big League club, so it’s good to see Kuhl have success.
Despite the victory, the Pirates’ offense really went to sleep. Aaron Nola went seven innings and was a hard-luck loser as he only allowed one run on four hits. Because baseball is a silly game, the Pirates got their only run on a David Freese bases-loaded Hit By Pitch. It was the first 1-0 game where the only run was scored via HBP since July 5, 1998, when the Yankees beat the Orioles. So for those in attendance, you saw something that only happens almost once every 20 years.
It’s Adam Frazier’s World
In the 1-0 victory against the Phillies, Adam Frazier went 2-3 with a walk and a run scored. It was another multi-hit effort for Frazier, who has been on fire since his return from the DL. Over the last week of play, Frazier is hitting .500/.520/.583/1.103 with 2 doubles, seven RBIs, and five runs scored. Simply put, he’s been incredible.
Frazier surprised a lot of people when was called up to the Big Leagues last season. He was a huge bright spot in the Pirates disappointing end to 2016. So far Frazier is proving that was no fluke. A DL stint was a hiccup but when healthy, all Frazier has done is hit. For the season he is hitting .369 with six extra-base hits. There are a lot of variables in baseball but sometimes it’s fairly simple. This team is better when Adam Frazier is at the top of the order. He may not be your traditional lead-off hitter as he has a below average walk rate of 6.6 percent. However, that doesn’t matter if he continues to hit at a well above .300 clip. Adam Frazier has been a marvel and until he stops being effective, he needs to continue to be this team’s lead-off hitter.
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