The Pittsburgh Pirates battled back and tied the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth inning only to see St. Louis add six runs in the 12th inning. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the extra inning loss.
Takeaways
- After Gerrit Cole exited due to injury, A.J. Schugel stepped up and gave the team four scoreless innings and struck out four hitters in the process. In an important division game where the Pirates had to deal with a huge loss early on, Schugel was able to give Clint Hurdle and his teammates four solid innings to keep them in the game.
- It was encouraging to see the Pirates put together a string of solid at-bats against Trevor Rosenthal and tie the game. After Starling Marte tripled, Jordy Mercer was able to eventually single and bring in the tying run. Unfortunately the team could not capitalize with the bases loaded later in the inning, but fortunately they were able to even the score and move the game to extra innings.
Throwaways
- Obviously the big news from Friday’s game was Cole’s removal from the game in the third inning. The team did eventually release some information about the injury, but more details will not be available until some time on Saturday. It does not need to be said that losing Cole for an extended amount of time will be a huge blow for the team.
Francisco Cervelli was removed from the game due to left-hand pain. He is currently being examined.
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 11, 2016
- The bad news was not over for the Pirates, as Francisco Cervelli had to be removed from the game during his at-bat in the fourth inning. The injury was to his left hand and Cervelli showed the discomfort immediately after the swing. This is the second injury that Cervelli has suffered recently and while Chris Stewart is a fine option to play once a week or so, they’ll need to find a replacement if the fan favorite catcher will miss a lot of time.
- In the top of the 12th inning Clint Hurdle elected to intentionally walk Aledmys Diaz to put two men on base for pinch hitter Adam Wainwright. And the plan quickly backfired as Wainwright blasted a double to bring both runs in to give St. Louis a two run lead. In this situation you cannot blame Hurdle for that decision. Diaz has been a very hot hitter as of late and a pitcher pinch hitting is always going to be a better option. This time it worked out in the exact opposite way the Pirates wanted to see it unfold. From this point of the game, things got out of hand in a hurry.
W – Jonathan Broxton (1-0)
L – Juan Nicasio (5-5)
Line of the Night
Tonight we’ll focus on Schugel, as he was called upon earlier than expected and delivered fantastic results.
Schugel worked the third through sixth innings, allowing no base runners and striking out four. Not only did he pitch four clean innings, he did it very efficiently as he only needed 42 pitches (28 for strikes) to work those frames. Since the bullpen has been overworked lately, it was huge for Schugel to be able to eat that many innings in one night.
Up Next
The series continues on Saturday at 7:15pm when Carlos Martinez (6-5, 3.76) and Francisco Liriano (4-5, 5.25) take the mound for their clubs. Martinez is coming off of two strong starts, including an eight inning shut out performance against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 30th. Liriano’s last two starts have been not been good, especially the last time out when he lasted just three and one third innings against Los Angeles Angels. He gave up seven runs (six earned) in that game and also walked at least four batters for the third consecutive game.
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