Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Silenced by Fernandez

Gerrit Cole pitched well, but Jose Fernandez was a little better as the Miami Marlins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Tuesday. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the game.

Takeaways

• Both starting pitchers were as advertised on Tuesday, giving the few fans in attendance a great pitching duel. While the Marlins eventually got to Gerrit Cole in the sixth inning, he and Jose Fernandez showed why they are two of the top young arms in the game. Fernandez allowed just three hits to Cole’s nine, and it really is a wonder that more fans did not show up for such an anticipated matchup.
• John Jaso continues to display great defense at first base in his first season at that position. In the fourth inning Derek Dietrich ripped a line drive down the first base line, which Jaso snared and cleanly tossed to Cole at the base. After spending the 2015 season holding their breath when a ball was hit or thrown to first base, Jaso has more than adequately played the position so far this year.

Throwaways

• In the third inning with Ichiro Suzuki on first and no one out, J.T. Realmuto slapped a ball through the left side. Starling Marte threw to third instead of second, allowing Realmuto to advance an additional base. So instead of having a man on first and keeping a double play as an option, Cole had to face the middle of the Miami lineup with two men in scoring position. Cole worked around Marte’s mistake and got out of the inning unscathed while adding two more strikeouts to his total.
• The seventh inning proved to be Cole’s undoing on Tuesday night. After getting Fernandez to ground out, he allowed three consecutive singles, one of which scored a run. Then he uncorked a wild pitch during Marcell Ozuna‘s at-bat which brought in another run. Jared Hughes could not close the inning and allowed another run to score, also charged to Cole.

W – Jose Fernandez (8-2)

L – Gerrit Cole (5-4)

S – A.J. Ramos (16)

Line of the Night

Unfortunately tonight’s Line of the Night goes to one of the bad guys, Fernandez.

Fernandez surrendered three hits over seven innings of work while striking out six. Even more impressive is that he threw 62 of his 88 pitches for strikes. He kept the Pittsburgh hitters off balance all night, mixing in breaking balls with his high 90s fastball.

Up Next

The four game series continues tomorrow at 7:10pm when Jonathon Niese (5-2, 4.42) and Adam Conley (3-3, 4.15) take the mound for their clubs. Niese has recorded quality starts in his last four outings, and in his last two starts he has only surrendered one run in each. Conley’s last start ended before he could complete five innings, and before that he was tagged for six runs in five and a third innings of work.