Pittsburgh Pirates Takeaways & Throwaways – Swept out of the Windy City

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a late push but ultimately dropped the third and final game against the Chicago Cubs. Here are the takeaways and throwaways from the 6-5 loss that gave the Cubs a sweep in the series.

Takeaways

• Jordy Mercer had the big hit of the evening, a two run double in the eighth to bring to bring the Pirates within two runs. Mercer is now two home runs away from tying his career high and needs to knock in four more runs to meet his RBI career high as well, both set in 2014 in 506 at-bats. He’ll enter Friday’s contest with 433 at-bats, so he has a very good chance of eclipsing both marks. Unfortunately he had a different fate against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, but he put up a tremendous fight.
• The Pirates did show good patience at the plate on Wednesday, collecting eight walks over the course of the game. Hits were hard to come by during the entire series, and drawing walks was at least one way the team was able to get runners on base. The problem on Wednesday was that no one outside of Mercer, could get the big hit when they needed it.

Throwaways

• The Pirates were in good shape to score multiple runs in the fifth inning but were only able to plate a single run. Josh Harrison singled in Sean Rodriguez, who had walked earlier in the inning. With Harrison on second and Ryan Vogelsong and Josh Bell on the corners (both reaching with a free pass), Andrew McCutchen came up to the plate. Jason Hammel worked away from McCutchen and eventually was able to get him to swing and miss at a pitch just off the plate.
• A similar situation unfolded in the seventh inning, and again the team was able to get just one run when McCutchen drew a bases loaded walk. But the next batter, Gregory Polanco swung at the first pitch and hit a shallow pop up to left field where Addison Russell made a sliding catch to end the inning. A big hit in either of these innings could have swung the game in a different direction.
• Antonio Bastardo had a very bad sixth inning. After relieving Vogelsong, Bastardo threw a wild pitch that allowed the runners to advance and then he balked with Willson Contreras at the plate to give the Cubs a fourth run. He then gave up a run scoring double to Contreras, further extending the Chicago lead. Both of these runs were charged to Vogelsong, so his final line looked much worse than he actually pitched.

W – Jason Hammel (14-7)

L – Ryan Vogelsong (3-4)

S – Aroldis Chapman (32)

Line of the Night

Tonight’s Line of the Night goes to Bastardo, just to show how deceptive a box score can be.

At first glance, Bastardo appeared to have a good night. He pitched one inning and wasn’t charged with any runs, allowed a hit and a walk to go along with a strikeout. But what his line doesn’t show is the wild pitch, balk and the two runs that scored and were charged to Vogelsong because of the hit he gave up. The moral here is to always go to the bottom of the box score to find out what really happened.

Up Next

After the off day on Thursday, the Pirates will return to PNC Park to take on the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday at 7:05pm. The Brew Crew will send Junior Guerra (7-3, 2.93) to the mound in opposition of Jameson Taillon (3-3, 3.39). Guerra will make his first start since he landed on the disabled list in early August, but prior to the injury he was one of the most consistent members of the Milwaukee rotation. Taillon’s previous start was the worst of his career, when he lasted just three innings and gave up five runs against the same opponent he’ll face on Friday.