Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – 4/29/16

Pittsburgh Pirates nearly shutout the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 on the back of a great start from Nicasio and solid defense.

After his last start, the Pirates fan base had soured on Juan Nicasio and his role in the Pirates rotation, but tonight, he turned in his best start so far in a Pirates uniform, as the Pirates continue to heat up in the cold weather.

Takeaways:

Return of the Juan – In his best outing of the season, Juan Nicasio showed a glimpse of what made him such a fascinating focal point of spring training after capturing a spot in the rotation with a stellar spring.  Nicasio worked seven shutout innings, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out eight.  It was the kind of performance Pirates fans expected form the surprising righty entering the season, but after battling control issues each of his last three outings, Nicasio’s position in the rotation was actually in doubt.  Jason Rollison talked about the bullpen needing Nicasio, but after tonight, maybe Nicasio doesn’t need the bullpen.

Jhay All Day – Josh Harrison, despite having two more errors so far than his predecessor, has been a huge upgrade defensively over Neil Walker.  Several times tonight, Harrison made defensive plays few other second baseman would have been able to make.  Offensively, he may not have the power stats, but he has fit in perfectly with the Pirates on-base approach.  Harrison was also near the National League leaders in batting average entering tonight.  That didn’t change tonight.  Harrison went 1-3 at the plate with his first home run of the season, first since May 15, 2015, and first in 379 at-bats.

Throwaways:

Marte baserunning – It’s not that Starling Marte is a bad baserunner this year, but he still has a habit to make some awful mistakes on the base paths.  In the second, Marte singled to leadoff the inning, but he almost got picked off when he attempted to steal second, stumbled, and shut down the attempt, retreating back to first just in time.  In the sixth inning, Marte got picked off and caught attempting to steal third base for the final out in the inning.  So far this year, Marte has a 1.5 BsR, according to Fangraphs, which is the measure above or below average on base running performance.  Last year, he had a -1.5 BsR.  Hopefully, tonight was just a temporary regression and not part of a greater trend.

One game wonder – Andrew McCutchen wowed fans with his three home run, five RBI performance on Wednesday, but tonight, he was right back into the slump, wearing the collar with a 0-4 performance and two strikeouts.  No one is questioning whether or not McCutchen will eventually come around, but he needs to be a contributor sooner rather than later as the crucial keystone of the Pirates offense.

W – Juan Nicasio

L – Dan Straily

S – Mark Melancon

Line of the Night: Sparing the bullpen

Entering the night, the Pirates had the second most innings pitched at 84.1, behind only the Arizona Diamondbacks at 96.1.  Juan Nicasio became just the second Pirates starter to pitch seven innings, joining Jon Niese as the only other one.  Coming off of long outings for the bullpen in Colorado, Nicasio’s great start made it possible to get a shaky bullpen some much needed rest.

Up Next:

Francisco Liriano and Alfredo Simon square off tomorrow night at 7:05 at PNC Park on a Zambelli fireworks night.  The game features a battle of two pitchers who could use a chance to lower their ERA.  Simon (0-2) has a 16.39 ERA entering the game, and Liriano (1-1) has a 4.64 ERA.  The Pirates will look to add on to their five game winning streak, while the Reds look to break a five game losing streak.  McCutchen will be looking to find more ground breaking out of his April slump.