Takeaways and Throwaways – Pittsburgh Pirates Fail To Back Up Glasnow In Loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a chance to sweep away the Brewers, but could not find enough offense to back another solid start from Tyler Glasnow

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FINAL:  Brewers – 6, Pirates -2 

W – Josh Davies (3-2, 5.60ERA) L – Tyler Glasnow (1-2, 6.33ERA)

Takeaways

• We have to start with Tyler Glasnow, who turned in another building-block type of performance. As Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play man discussed with GM Neal Huntington prior to the game, Glasnow had developed an undesirable habit of running into trouble in the early innings. Today was a completely different story as Glasnow started off with a 10-pitch opening frame. That excellent first inning propelled him to a very effective start. In fact, Glasnow’s 6.1 completed innings represent the longest start of his young career.
• Gregory Polanco reached base four times as he walked twice, had a solid single, and hit a double. Following a good performance in last night’s ballgame, it seems that Polanco’s bat is finally warming up. This is good news for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They desperately need Polanco to get going if the offense has any hope of finally catching up to the team’s stellar pitching.
• Jose Osuna hit his first Big League home run to put the Pirates on the board. It was a towering two-run shot that ended Brewers’ starter, Zach Davies‘ day. Osuna has mostly swung a solid bat in his limited role with the team and it continued today.

Throwaways

• The Pittsburgh Pirates trotted out a classic “Sunday lineup” befitting a getaway day. Even considering the team’s upcoming slate and need to rest regulars, the lineup card was littered with questionable decisions, notably the inclusion of John Jaso playing right field and leading off. The full lineup is below. Speaking of Jaso….
• …he misplayed a ball in right field early in the game that directly led to a Brewers run. As Greg Brown noted on the radio broadcast, while Jaso was not charged with an error on the play, an experienced right fielder would have no trouble making the somewhat routine play. We mused earlier on whether or not it is time for the team to end the Jaso in right field experiment, and days like today help build that case.
• The anemic offense did a poor job of stringing hits together, and it was until
• The Pirates’ bad defense reared its ugly, familiar head today. After going five-plus games without an error entering the day, a boot by Phil Gosselin in the fifth allowed the Brewers to tack on a run when an out would have ended the inning. Chris Stewart added a throwing error in the same inning.

Cutch gets a day off, as do JHay & Cervelli. pic.twitter.com/NeebTplp9V

— Chris Mack (@THEChrisMack) May 7, 2017

Line Of the Day

Glasnow gets the honors for Line of the Day with another quality start. His official line – 6.1 IP / 6H / 4 R (2 ER) / 2 BB / 6 SO / 1 HR – belies just how effective he looked at times.

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The #Pirates fall to the Brewers 6-2 in the series finale. Who is your Pirates player of the game?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) May 7, 2017

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Up Next

The Pittsburgh Pirates begin a brutal stretch of 17 games in 17 days with a three-game slate against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. RHP Trevor Williams will start tomorrow’s series opener in Jameson Taillon‘s stead. He will be opposed by RHP Brandon McCarthy. #LateNightBucn begins at 10:10 PM EST.