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The Bucs entire season to date was summed up in Tuesday’s 4-2 extra inning loss to the Tampa Rays. The three hour, five minute game brought out the good, the bad and the ugly of the Pirates season all in one night.
After taking yet another punch in the gut, the Bucs will try again Wednesday night when they send Ivan Nova (7-5, 3.06) to the hill. He will be countered by the Rays Blake Snell (0-4, 4.71) who rejoins the Tampa rotation. Snell hasn’t pitched since May 13, when he allowed six runs and six hits against the Boston Red Sox.
The Good
Trevor Williams was solid once again, staking claim to a permanent spot in the Pirates rotation going forward. The youngster gave Clint Hurdle seven solid innings, allowing just two runs on six hits. More importantly Williams struck out seven while walking none. Williams has had a few bumps in the road since joining the starting rotation, but overall you have to be happy with what he has done up to this point.
Then there is the offense, which battled back in the ninth inning. A Josh Harrison double to right set the stage for Andrew McCutchen‘s game-tying double to left. With the bats silent for most of the night, you have to like how the Bucs battled back in the ninth inning to give them a chance to win the game.
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The Bad
The Pirates offense couldn’t muster anything against Tampa starter Alex Cobb.
Cobb no-hit the Pirates through six innings before Harrison led off the seventh inning with a single.
Overall Cobb stymied the Bucs’ bats to the tune of only two hits through eight scoreless innings.
This is a guy who hasn’t been pitching well, entering Tuesday’s contest with a 4.05 ERA, but the Bucs did very little. Williams kept Pittsburgh in the game, but the offense didn’t do much to give him a chance to win a game he deserved to win.
The Pirates also had a chance to win the game in the ninth, but David Freese couldn’t come up with a big hit with two on and one out and Jordy Mercer flew out with the bases loaded to end the threat.
The Ugly
The top of the 10th inning about sums up the Pirates season.
With their best pitcher on the bump in Felipe Rivero, the Pirates booted away the game.
Freese’s error allowed the go-ahead run to score and then a wild pitch from Rivero set Tampa up in great position where a sac fly added an insurance run.
Down 4-2, the Pirates went down in order in the 10th.
Good teams make the plays they need to make. That’s not the Pirates right now as their defense proved costly two games in a row.
Lineup Change
The news of the day was the fact that McCutchen was bumped back up to the three spot and the struggling Gregory Polanco was bumped down to the sixth spot in the lineup.
McCutchen went 2-4 with a pair of RBI and Polanco went 0-3 with a walk.
Was it the right move?
One game will not tell the story. Give this some time.
In 28 games batting sixth, Cutch hit .380 with eight home runs. Hopefully that translates in the move back up to the three spot.
It’s also worth noting that Chris Stewart got the nod again behind the plate. Stewart has started four of the last seven games with Francisco Cervelli out of action. It seemed as if we would see Elias Diaz get a majority of the starts with Cervelli on the shelf, but that is clearly not the case.
Roster Move
Jacob Stallings was sent back to Triple-A Indianapolis and Antonio Bastardo was activated from the disabled list.
Bastardo was warming in the tenth inning and sports a lovely 16.20 ERA in 6.1 innings pitched prior to heading to the DL.
His addition to the active roster doesn’t do too much to improve a struggling bullpen.
Baseball Talk on the Web
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- Jake Arrieta ripped by own catcher
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