Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Don’t Pull Out the Brooms

Pittsburgh Pirates Lose Series Finale Against the Mets in Extras

In what was history-in-the-making, at least for Pirates rookie righty Jameson Taillon, the Pirates drop the final game of their three-game series against the Mets, 6-5 in 10 innings. It was a back and forth match that kept fans frustrated and on the edge of their seats throughout, but with more of the type of play to be expected between these two teams coming off of what seemed to be two easier wins yesterday.

Takeaways

• Jameson Taillon’s debut – It is the most anticipated call-up since Gregory Polanco‘s a couple years back and the rookie shook off the nerves and did his job. In the first inning he quickly got two outs before giving up a single to Yoenis Cespedes. He recovered nicely and served up a few to Neil Walker who got a little piece of the ball but was easily out at first. With that first inning behind him, Taillon settled in. Even after giving up a two-run homer to Ty Kelly in the fourth, the rookie worked hard, throwing 91 pitches, 60 for strikes. He delivered his first 1-2-3 inning in the sixth – which turned out to be his last. Even though he had some control issues at times, it was a solid outing and a debut to be proud of with a final line of six hits, three runs, two walks, three strikeouts, and one home run. Taillon’s MLB ERA currently stands at 4.50.
• The bottom of the first – The Pirates came out strong against Mets “god” Noah Syndergaard, with John Jaso getting a hit followed by a walk by Andrew McCutchen. Polanco got a double off of him scoring Jaso and then Jung Ho Kang joined the party with a base hit, scoring McCutchen. It cannot be stressed enough how rocking Thor early is the key to ringing him up throughout the game. Even though the Mets came back and matched their runs time and again, Syndergaard’s performance was definitely NOT Viking god-like at PNC tonight.
• BONUS – The Bucs are showing more patience at the plate of late, pushing Syndergaard to 79 pitches by the fourth.

Throwaways

• Runners left on base – The Pirates were practicing a more patient approach at the plate for sure, but were also back to their old ways of leaving runners on base. For the game, the Pirates left 11 on base. The key to beating teams in the division is converting runs and the Pirates must get back to that in order to dominate.
• Jared Hughes – Something is definitely not right with Hughes. Just as he started to get back into his groove in his last appearance, the normally-solid reliever took the bump tonight and absolutely bled. He gave up a two-run homer to Michael Conforto to tie the game threw behind Yoenis Cespedes (while suffering from some obvious finger/thumb/hand issue) before eventually giving up a single, walked Neil Walker, and then threw a wild pitch to James Loney, advancing runners to third and second. After intentionally walking Asdrubal Cabrera to load the bases, he finally dug in and threw a few strikes to Ty Kelly to eventually eek out of the inning with a fly-out easily managed by Sean Rodriguez. This was not what Hurdle had planned for the night.
• BONUS – Overzealous Umpiring – Matt Joyce was ejected by home plate umpire Alan Porter in the eighth for an unspecified reason. Then, after Jared Hughes, obviously suffering from some sort of issues with his thumb, threw behind Yoenis Cespedes in the eighth, Porter issued a warning to both benches, inciting Pirates manager Clint Hurdle to come out of the dugout, incredulous as to why the warning was issued. Porter has always had a quick trigger, but this was ridiculous.

W – Addison Reed (1 – 0)

L – Cory Luebke (0-1)

S – Jeurys Familia (19)

Line Of The Night

Gregory Polanco had himself a night. The lanky lefty netted one run on three hits with one RBI in five at-bats. Those three hits were all doubles – two off of Syndergaard, one off Henderson. Polanco’s hitting continues to progress nicely to say the least.

Next Up

The Pirates hop a late-night flight to Colorado to play a bizarre mid-home-stand make-up game against the Rockies beginning at 5:10 PM tomorrow. Jeff Locke (5-3) has the start for the game against the Rockies’ Chad Bettis (4-5) and is reportedly already in the Mile High City acclimating. After the last pitch is thrown Thursday, the guys will jump right back on a plane and get back to the ‘Burgh in time to start a three-game series against the Cards beginning at 7:05 PM Friday.

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