Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Locke Pitches (Near) Record Game

Pittsburgh Pirates Win the First Game of a Four Game Series in Colorado 6-1 with Strong Pitching and a Wide Strike Zone

There were a lot of thoughts floating about on the eve of Jeff Locke‘s third outing for the Pirates for the four-game series opener against the Rockies at Coors Field. It’s safe to say, none of it included the storyline we saw – with Jeff Locke pitching six shut-out innings of baseball with eight strike outs – five of them looking, to give the Pirates a 6-1 win and boost them to two games above .500.

Takeaways

• The big strike zone – It was established early and often – this crew was calling a wide strike zone and that undoubtedly helped the Pirates. That’s not to say that the zone was called unfairly – it’s just to say that Locke figured out how to work it faster than Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis and the Pirates were determined to hold their tongues when the calls didn’t go their way. The zone got both Rockies Manager  Walt Weiss and utilityman Ryan Raburn ejected in the fourth and sixth innings respectively.
• Not having to hit up that bullpen hard tonight – which threw a ton of pitches in the 12-10 slug-fest in Arizona and has been struggling of late.
• Bonus – Matt Joyce was in the line-up tonight in left field for Marte, who moved to centerfield to spell Andrew McCutchen who is the last Pirate to have a rest day after 20 games. Joyce smacked in a 3 run homer in the seventh to give the Pirates – and the battling bullpen – some badly needed insurance runs. He had a single in the third as well.

Throwaways

• The Pirates are grinding out there, but the strung together hits are still hit and miss. We’re seeing runners getting on base with wild pitches and HBP, but not a scoring machine we could hope for. Then again, maybe this is what everyone was preparing us for when they said the Pirates would suffer without those big bats of Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker. Five LOB through the game.
• The negativity surrounding Jeff Locke’s start tonight. Well before the first pitch was thrown there was so much anger by Pirates fans about Locke’s start it was hard to tell if they we’re actually rooting for the good guys or not. Yeah, he hasn’t started well, coming into the game 0-2 with a 7.24 ERA – but he delivered tonight one of the best performances of his career. It seems as if Pirates fans have forgotten that the team has traditionally been the underdogs – and even relishes that position. But tonight he delivered, and it won’t be recognized. And that’s a pity.

W – Jeff Locke (1-2)

L – Chad Bettis (2-1)

S – AJ Schugel (1)

Line of the Night – Jeff Locke pitched nearly the game of his career – six shut-out innings of baseball with eight strike-outs, five looking. He showed great control, a mixture of pitches and worked that big strike zone to his advantage. People will argue that he has a good outing every now and again, which keeps him in the rotation – there’s more to it than that and it showed his growth as a pitcher in this outing tonight.

Up Next: The Pirates take on the Rockies at 8:40 p.m. eastern for the second game of the four game series at Coors Field. McCutchen should be back in the line-up – which means we could be in for a slump-buster from him (and not a moment too soon). Gerrit Cole (1-2) is slated to take on Jorge De La Rosa (1-2).