Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – South Beach Memorial

The Pittsburgh Pirates spent Memorial Day in Miami instead of San Juan. After beating the Marlins by a score of 10-0, here now are the takeaways and throwaways from tonight’s win.

Takeaways

• The Pittsburgh Pirates got on board with two seaprate two-out RBIs from Jung Ho Kang and David Freese. The club has seen solid if unspectacular production with two out and runners in scoring position, with 10 HR and 78 RBI despite a .254 batting average.
• Gregory Polanco hit his first career grand slam, coming off of reliever Jose Urena in the five-run Pirates fifth. An absolute moonshot, Polanco knew the pitch was gone the moment it left his bat
• Despite facing a lineup that was sans-Giancarlo Stanton, Jeff Locke had the start of his career, hurling a complete game.  Locke finished his start having retired 20 straight Marlins hitters. The start marked the first time Locke got through at least seven innings on the road in 2016.

Throwaways

• On a night where nothing much went wrong for the Pittsburgh Pirates, it becomes very hard to find a throwaway.
• We’re reaching here, but it’s shame that this game couldn’t have been played in San Juan as originally scheduled. Though the right call was made not to unnecessarily expose anyone to the Zika Virus, Puerto Rico’s inherent love for the Pittsburgh Pirates would have given extra “oomph” to the club’s dominating win.

W – Jeff Locke

L-  Justin Nicolino

Line of the Night

With apologies to Polanco, the line of the night belongs to Locke. In allowing his team to save some bullpen innings in the middle of a seven game road trip, Locke earns the Line of The Night.

Final Line: CG – 2 H – 1 K – 0 BB – 105 pitches (67 strikes)

Up Next

One of the marquee pitching matchups in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ season takes place tomorrow as Gerrit Cole (5-3, 2.53 ERA) takes on Jose Fernandez (7-2, 2,82 ERA). Now in his second season since coming back from Tommy John surgery, Fernandez is pitching like the staff ace that many projected him to be. Cole lasted just five innings in his last start, needing 106 pitches to get there. He will look to take advantage of a Marlins lineup that may still  be without Giancarlo Stanton.