The Pirates did not play a great series following their opening game victory. The Rangers pretty much outplayed them and won the series. Despite the loss, the Pirates didn’t play overly poorly, but ran into a pretty good Texas ball club. I wouldn’t read too much into this series as the Pirates have obviously been playing much better lately. They entered the series winners of eight of their last 10 games, so a bad series was bound to happen eventually. Losing to a Jeff Banister lead team isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Outside of Niese in game one, the starting pitching was not very strong in the series, but mostly it has been better lately. The Pirates are close to likely accomplishing the goal of holding serve until the super prospects, Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow are called up to the big club. If these two rookies can improve the pitching staff, coupled with the offense, the Pirates would really make some noise from June on-ward.
The Pirates will look to rebound from this series loss as they continue their road trip by traveling to Miami to take on the Marlins in a four game series. The Marlins currently sit at 26-24 and are in third place in the NL East. The team has been substantially better under first year manager Don Mattingly, but this is likely a series the Pirates should split at the bare minimum. Jeff Locke takes the mound against Justin Nicolino. First pitch is at 7:10pm.
Series Result: Pirates lose 2-1
2016 win/loss record: 28-21
2016 series record: 9-6-1
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