Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Game 14

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw their record fall to 7-7 as they were defeated 5-4 by the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. Below are the takeaways and throwaways from the marathon game.

Takeaways

• This game featured one of the most bizarre series of events on a baseball field that this writer has ever seen. With Francisco Cervelli at the plate, Andrew McCutchen was on third and started moving down the line towards home. He successfully got Colin Rea to balk and scored. But the umpires talked it over and took back the balk. Clint Hurdle came back out a second time after talking it over in the dugout and argued vehemently that Rea had balked. So the overturned call was overturned again, allowing McCutchen to score.
• While the Pirates didn’t connect for a home run, they were very successful stealing bases. All three outfielders swiped a base, which is one way the team can try to create more runs since they are not connecting on many long balls early on in the season. It will be interesting to see if the team continues to put pressure on the Padres with their stelling running game.

Throwaways

• Tuesday’s start was by far the worst of the season for Liriano. He was erratic all night, issuing five walks but was able to avoid any damage for the first three innings. He gave up two run home runs in each of the next two innings before being pulled with one out in the fifth inning. Arquimedes Caminero gave up a monster home run to Adam Rosales and then was replaced with Rob Scahill, who inexplicably got the last out of the inning by picking Jabari Blash off of second base.
• The patience that the Pirates had been showing recently was not there during the loss to the Padres. They only drew two walks and struck out ten times. Hopefully they can put this game behind them and perform at the plate better when the series resumes on Wednesday.

W – Rea (1-1)

L – Liriano (1-1)

S – Rodney (2)

Line of the night: Tonight we recognize John Jaso, who had one hit in four at-bats, along with a walk and a RBI. This was the ninth consecutive game that Jaso has reached base, exactly what the Pirates wanted from him when they decided to make him the lead off hitter.

Up next: The series in San Diego continues tomorrow night at 10:10pm Eastern when lefties Jeff Locke and Drew Pomeranz take the mound. Locke could not finish five innings last time out and also issued seven walks , so he’ll try to turn things around against a scuffling San Diego club. Pomeranz won’t be an easy assignment though, as he had a quality start last time out and before that a very good outing to start the season.