Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Game Six

The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped Sunday’s series finale to the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 2-1, moving their record to 4-2 so far this season. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the sixth game of the season.

Takeaways

• Jeff Locke had a nice 2016 debut, pitching six innings and only giving up one run, a solo home to Eugenio Suarez, who is on fire right now. Locke walked two and only strikeout one, but what’s important is that he was able to avoid having an inning where he threw 30 or so pitches. Of the 80 pitches he threw 53 of them went for strikes, so Locke was able to show the ability to keep the ball in the strike zone (or, get hitters to chase pitches outside of the zone).
• Chris Stewart, making the most of his first start of the year, connected for his first home run as a Pirate and first since 2013. Stewart does not provide the offense that Francisco Cervelli does, and he certainly won’t be hitting home runs every time he plays, but it nice to see him connect for one today. Especially since it represented the only run the Pirates would score today.

Some really #SmartHitting in the 2nd by Stew.
WATCH: https://t.co/J0KuNga8lv#StewPop pic.twitter.com/pzyKAANmPz

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 10, 2016

Throwaways

• The ugly trend of leaving runners on base continued this afternoon, when the Pirates left a total of 14 on the bases. This is something that will need to change quickly, or the Pirates are going to risk losing more close games. The team is hitting, as their total of nine hits from today shows, but they need to start driving runners in and stop leaving them stranded on the bases.
• Finally, the Pirates looked very good in the first three games of the season against the Cardinals but for whatever reason, the team seems to struggle in Great American Ball Park. Their next trip to Cincinnati will be May 9-11, and it will be very important that the team plays better at that time. Winning games within the division is going to be important given that the Cubs and Cardinals will be involved in chase for the pennant all season.

W – Ross Ohlendorf (1-0)

L –  Arquimedes Caminero (0-1)

Line of the afternoon: Who knows if this will happen again this season, but Stewart had the best line of the afternoon for the Pirates. Stewart collected two hits in his four at-bats, including a solo home run that produced the only run of the afternoon for Pittsburgh.

Next up: The Pirates will begin their home and home series against their MLB designated rivals the Detroit Tigers tomorrow at 1:10pm at Comerica Park. Jonathan Niese and Justin Verlander will toe the rubber for their clubs. Niese will look to bounce back from a forgettable debut with his new club, when he only lasted five innings and gave five runs (four earned). He did strike out seven, so if there is one point from his last start that will hopefully carry over, it’s the strikeout total.