Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Game 11

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw their record drop to 5-6 after an ugly 8-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday. The offense woke up towards the end of the game, but erratic pitching from the first inning on doomed Pittsburgh. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the eleventh game of the season.

Takeaways

• In the seventh inning, it appeared that Kyle Lobstein had given up his second home run in as many innings of work until Starling Marte made one of the best catches of the season so far. With his right arm holding him onto the outfield fence, Marte reached out and grabbed the ball before it could clear the fence, keeping the game within reach for the Pirates.
• Matt Joyce, who was a non roster invitee to spring training, got the offense going in the seventh when he hit a three run home run to bring the Pirates within two runs of tying the game. The Pirates will need more timely hits from the bench such as this on nights when the starters aren’t hitting to perhaps ignite the offense.
• Marte brought the Pirates within one run when he followed up Joyce’s home run with a run scoring ground rule double. He has been one of the most consistent hitters in the lineup so far this season and had a great game defensively. The Milwaukee runners were definitely showing respect for his arm and weren’t being too liberal on the basepaths.

Throwaways

• Jeff Locke had a much worse outing on Friday than he did in his first start of the season. He wasn’t able to finish five innings and walked seven. While one of those was intentional, three of those walks were issued to start an inning. This is a recipe for disaster and it’s remarkable that he only gave up three runs while he was out there. Even dating back to last season this has been an issue for Locke: he can pitched brilliantly in one game and then five days later look like an completely different pitcher.
• Pitching didn’t get any better once Locke was removed from the game. Rob Scahill got the one out he needed to end the fifth, but both Lobstein and Neftali Feliz gave up no doubt two run home runs to Pittsburgh villian Ryan Braun. This was a game that it took the offense too long to get going, but having two of your relievers each give up  home runs with men on base in a game is going to sink your chances to win on a given night.

W – Jimmy Nelson (2-1)

L – Jeff Locke (0-1)

Line of the night: Tonight this goes to the bullpen, and not for the right reasons.

In 4.1 innings of combined work, they gave up five runs on six hits and three walks while striking out four. Locke did not have his best stuff, which was obvious by the seven walks he issued, but for the most part he kept the Pirates in the game. Other than Scahill and his third of an inning of work, Lobstein, Feliz and A.J. Shugel all put the game out of reach. Shugel put the final nail in the coffin when he issued a walk with the bases loaded to put the game out of reach.

Up next: The weekend series continues Saturday at 7:05pm when Jonathon Niese and Taylor Jungmann face off. Niese will go for his second win of the season and look to bring his ERA down further, which currently sits at an ugly 5.73. Jungman currently has an even uglier ERA of 11.57, so perhaps the Pittsburgh offense will use this as an opportunity to get going.