Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Arrieta Strikes Again

Jake Arrieta continued his dominance of the league while baffling the Pirates in the second game of the three game series.

Takeaways-

• Sean Rodriguez was one of the only Pirates that showed up tonight. Rodriguez recorded two base hits in the game and was flawless defensively at second base and shortstop, even with the game being out of hand. He also scored the only run of the game for the Pirates. Rodriguez has has a stellar start to the year coming off the bench and making spot starts for the Pirates. Refer back to my April 26th article on Sean Rodriguez and how he has earned his hot start. The other bright spot for the Pirates was reliever A.J. Schugel. Schugel pitched three perfect innings in relief and neutralized the Cubs’ offensive rout.
• The good news is that the Cubs and Pirates still have 17 more games against each other in the 2016 season. Let these first two games be a measuring stick for the Pirates and help them rebound for the next 17. Think of it this way: Jake Arrieta walked the first two batters of the game tonight, only to come back and dominate the game. Look for the Pirates, like Arrieta, come back from these first two games and rebound against the Cubs.

Throwaways-

• The Pirates squandered a couple chances that they had in the first few innings both offensively and defensively after Arrieta walked the first two batters of the game. However, the Pirates were not able to plate a single run. In the following half inning, Jon Niese had two strikes on Anthony Rizzo, only to hit him in the foot with the third pitch of the at-bat. Rizzo ended up scoring the game’s first run. Niese also walked Addison Russell after getting ahead of him with two quick strikes, and Russell kept the inning alive. Arrieta then singled home the second run of the inning two batters later. Again in the fourth inning Niese charged ahead of Dexter Fowler 0-2 only to throw a wild pitch that scored Russell and ended up walking Fowler to put him on with one out.
• After starting his season 3-0 with some help from the offense, Niese self destructed in his outing tonight where he went five innings and gave up six runs on nine hits and walked five. Niese faced all nine Cubs in the fourth inning where he gave up four runs. His ERA coming into tonight was 5.08. However, as stated before, with the help of the offense, Niese came out on top in his first three decisions.

W – Jake Arrieta (6-0)

L – Jon Niese (3-1)

Line of the night – The Cubs’ leadoff batter has reached base 12 out of 18 times in the series against the Pirates. Their mixture of aggression and patience has propelled the Cubs to success, especially against Pirates’ starters Gerrit Cole and Jon Niese.

Up Next – The Pirates and Cubs will finish the series with an afternoon matinee. Juan Nicasio will take the hill for the Pirates as Jon Lester will do the same for the Cubs. The Pirates are 4-5 in day games this season, and have outscored their opponents 42-39 in those games while averaging 4.6 runs per game.