The Pirates finally got an easy win last night to snap them out of a week-long stretch of ugly baseball, and I don’t think anyone should be surprised by what got them there; a really nice start from their rotation. In last night’s case it was Jon Niese, making the first seven inning start of the season for the Pirates, blanking the Brewers over all seven, scattering three hits to go with his three walks and three strikeouts.
Niese’s start last night actually looked a lot more like I thought he’d look as a Pirate than his first two starts; he got 13 groundouts in his seven innings of work and relied a bit more on the defense (which had let him down a bit prior to last night) rather than missing bats the way he did the first two times out. It was exactly what the Pirates needed, though, after a season full of short starts that over-taxed the bullpen and lead to a week of bullpen meltdowns that gave away leads and stopped comebacks in their tracks.
I said it a lot over the winter, but it bears repeating here: if Niese can pitch like this more often than not, the Pirates are going to be fine. If one other starter (Nicasio or Locke, probably, but I won’t rule out Vogelsong after an excellent-looking start against the Tigers last week) can turn into a functional mid-rotation person behind him, I think they’ll be more than fine. One of baseball’s most amazing features is how a team can go a week looking lost in the woods like the Pirates did, only to have one solid start and one Andrew McCutchen swing seem to put everything back on track.
It’s still early, but I think today is a huge start for Juan Nicasio. As impressive as his first start was, the concerns raised by the second one speak a little bit louder to me, as he basically pitched into every trouble spot that you would anticipate for a guy like him who’s struggled as a starter in the past and mostly worked as a reliever since. The pressure points for him are the same; how his velocity looks early now that he’s taking a regular rotation turn, how he uses a third pitch with his fastball and slider, how deep he can pitch into games, and how he looks against lefties. The reason the pressure is there is twofold: Ryan Vogelsong looked really good on Thursday against the Tigers, hitting 94 with his fastball, throwing strikes, and keeping them off balance through most of his five innings of work, but the real issue, I think, is that the bullpen could use Nicasio. Part of the reason the bullpen is running on empty is that if a starter goes five innings, they ask the same four guys (Caminero, Feliz, Watson, and Melancon) to cover the end of the game, and if it goes six, they lean on that same group minus Caminero. Nicasio in the bullpen could add some more dimension to that dynamic, and it could give them a reliever to bridge the short-start gaps in closer games a little bit better than Kyle Lobstein has to this point.
Of course, the main issue is that the Pirates need their best starters in the rotation, and it’s still a bit too early to give up on Nicasio on that front. His stuff is great, he made the Grapefruit League and the Cardinals look dumb, and the season is young. He’s earned the right for a longer look, and so we’ll watch him today and go from there.
Something else happened yesterday that bears watching: Andrew McCutchen’s first home run. ‘Cutch looked great in spring training, but his bat has sort of been the missing link on the lineup to this point. The middle-to-bottom part of the order has looked very good (Starling Marte, Francisco Cervelli, and Gregory Polanco especially), John Jaso has been every bit the on-base machine he was advertised to be, and even David Freese is reaching base at a 36% clip, but McCutchen’s early season slump has sort of prevented the two dots from connecting. If last night’s bomb was the start of a hot streak, I’ve got a feeling the runs are going to start coming in droves for the Pirates.
Nicasio and Zach Davies at 1:35 today. The Pirates will break out the We Are Fam-a-lee uniforms for this first time in 2016. I think it’s time to start a winning streak.
Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images
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