The Opening series of the baseball season is always fun. It’s when every single fan has hope and the season is all future and no past.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had a tremendous season in 2015, winning 98 games before unfortunately bowing out in the NL Wildcard Game for the second straight season. The Pirates, Cardinals and Cubs battled all season for NL Central supremacy, but in the end, it was the Cardinals winning the division and the Cubs beating both their NL Central rivals in the playoffs before losing in the National League Championship Series to the New York Mets.
Most pundits have the Cubs steamrolling to the NL Central title and the pennant, but they play the games for a reason and hype doesn’t win World Series.
The Pirates open the season against the hated St. Louis Cardinals and I cannot think of a better way to start a new season of Pirates’ baseball. Francisco Liriano tried to start the Pirates’ season on a winning note as he faced Adam Wainwright in game one.
Game One: Liriano vs. Wainwright
Game One: Francisco Liriano (0-0, 0.00ERA) vs. Adam Wainwright (0-0, 0.00ERA)
Result: Pirates win 4-1
Winning Pitcher: Francisco Liriano (1-0, 0.00ERA)
Losing Pitcher: Adam Wainwright (0-1, 4.50ERA)
- What went right:
- Francisco Liriano was filthy as he went six innings, allowed zero runs on three hits and struck out 10. He also drove in the first run of the 2016 season with his RBI single in the second inning.
- David Freese has an impressive Pirates’ debut against his former club as he went 2-4 and played some very stellar defense at third base.
- Tony Watson was used situationally, which was awesome to see. He also took the ball and did his job as he did almost all of 2015.
- Gregory Polanco reached base three times as he went 2-3 with a double and a walk.
- What went wrong:
- Francisco Liriano walked five batters and allowed the Cardinals the load the bases twice.
- Pirates made several base-running blunders as Gregory Polanco was caught trying to tag up from first to second and Francisco Cervelli was picked off of third base by Yadier Molina.
- Francisco Cervelli committed an error when he tried to throw to second on a sacrifice bunt attempt.
- Mark Melancon was not particularly sharp as he allowed one run on two hits in a non-save situation.
Opening Day is never not exciting, but it’s even more exciting when you’re playing your division rival and you’re literally opening the entire MLB season.
The Pirates played a fairly solid game from start to finish as they dictated the pace from basically the first inning onward. Francisco Liriano was effectively wild and pretty much kept the Cardinals off-balance during his entire six inning outing.
It was also excellent to see Clint Hurdle use Tony Watson in the seventh inning because that part of the Cardinals’ lineup was all lefties. It was a pivotal moment in the game and correct time to use one of the best relievers in the game. Winning on Opening Day is nice and while it’s obviously just game one of 162, it was nice to see the Pirates play well in front of sell out and invested crowd.
The Pirates looked to win the series when Jon Niese made his Pirates’ regular season debut.
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