The Pittsburgh Pirates desperately needed a series victory. While it would feel good to beat any opponent, beating Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers is extra special. The Pirates played fairly well in all three games and had a very good chance to sweep the Dodgers, but due to a Francisco Liriano hiccup, they had to settle for taking three out of four games.
The biggest positive from this series was that Andrew McCutchen had a good series. He went 5-15 with two home runs, four RBIs, and two runs scored. There’s no way to know if this is going to be the series that finally gets the former MVP out of his funk, but it felt nice to see him have good at-bats against some quality starting pitching. Hopefully, this is the start of Andrew McCutchen getting back to form and playing the way he is capable of playing.
The Pirates still have a lot of work to do, but they are finally through the extremely difficult portion of their schedule. They will travel out to Seattle to begin a nine game, three city road trip. They will start with two games against the Mariners before playing three against the Athletics and four against the Cardinals. The Pirates have a chance to get back over .500 with this road trip, but you have to play the games first. Hopefully, the team is up to the challenge.
Game one of the Mariners series will feature Jon Niese taking on Hisashi Iwakuma. First pitch is scheduled for 10:10pm.
Series Result: Pirates win 3-1
2016 win/loss record: 37-40
2016 series record: 11-12-1
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