Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Arrieta Handed His Fourth Loss

The Pittsburgh Pirates took one game off of the division lead of the Chicago Cubs with a 8-4 win on Friday. The win puts the Pirates to within seven and a half games of the Cubs with two games left to play before the All Star break. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the victory.

Takeaways

• The Pirates clubbed two home runs off of Jake Arrieta in the second inning, a rare event against the reigning Cy Young Award winner. David Freese hit a solo home run, his tenth of the year, while Sean Rodriguez added a two run bomb, his eighth of the season. The last time Arrieta gave two home runs in an inning was against the Pirates on September 13, 2013, and they went back-to-back-to-back. It was an impressive feat against a pitcher who has been one of the very best in the game the last few seasons.
• Francisco Liriano may not have finished six innings and did not register a quality start, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. When Liriano left the game in the sixth with a runner on second, he had only given up one run. But Juan Nicasio gave up a home run so Liriano was charged with an additional run. He did allow three walks and used 96 pitches to get into the sixth inning, but this is much better than some of the outings he has had recently.
• Another one of the team’s top prospects was recalled before the game, this time it was Josh Bell making an immediate impact. In his first MLB at-bat, he singled to right centerfield and moved Adam Frazier to third. Frazier then scored on John Jaso‘s single to left to tie the game. Bell joins a number of his Indianapolis teammates that have helped the Pirates this summer.

Throwaways

• In the field Freese committed two errors when he was unable to field ground balls cleanly in the third and six innings. These errors were his sixth and seventh on the season, and while the error in the third did not lead to a Chicago run, the error in the six inadvertently did. Had Freese fielded the ground ball cleanly, the inning would not have been extended when Liriano had an already elevated pitch count. This led to Nicasio facing Miguel Montero, who blasted the two run shot to tie the game.
• Nicasio wasn’t the only bullpen arm to give up a home run, as Neftali Feliz served one up in the seventh inning as well. In a game against one of the best teams in baseball, the bullpen does not have much room for error. The Chicago lineup features a number of hitters that can change the game in a hurry, with Anthony Rizzo‘s home run being a perfect example.

W – Neftali Feliz (3-0)

L – Jake Arrieta (12-4)

S – Mark Melancon (27)

Line of the Night

Tonight’s line of the night goes to one of the Cubs, just because it was such an unusual inning.

Trevor Cahill pitched the eighth inning for Chicago and it was quite an inning. He walked three batters and hit another one while also uncorking two wild pitches. Only one run resulted from all this, and Cahill somehow avoided giving up a hit in his long, 29 pitch inning.

Up Next

The second game of the last series before the break will begin on Saturday at 7:15pm. The Cubs will send Jon Lester (9-4, 2.67) to face Chad Kuhl (1-0, 4.09). Lester had the shortest outing of his career on July 3rd, when the New York Mets clubbed three home runs and hammered him for eight runs in one and a third innings. Kuhl was much better in his last start, allowing no walks compared to the four he issued in his debut.  Kuhl will be facing a potent lineup, and a good performance could make management give him strong consideration for a rotation spot in the second half.