Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – Locked In

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

To the surprise of many, Jeff Locke came out and pitched a gem on Monday night, stifling the Rockies in Colorado. Locke threw six innings of scoreless ball, including eight strikeouts to just two walks. Locke came into the game with a robust 7.24 ERA, and many fans clamoring for the Pirates top pitching prospects to be expedited to the majors. This is probably an overreaction, and it’s certainly nice to see Locke drop his ERA to 5.03 on the season. We’ll see if this start is one of Locke’s rare, occasional quality starts, or if this success continues.

Andrew McCutchen got a much-needed day off yesterday. He’s bringing up the rear of the offense, as the rest of the lineup seems to be thriving. The success around McCutchen makes his early-season slump more bearable than similar early-season slumps have been in the past. I have the utmost confidence he’ll rebound.

The offense continues to surge, putting up six runs last night. What stands out the most about last night, however, is that the bullpen only game up one run. It’s hard for even the worst bullpen in the majors to give up six runs, however, but it’s still nice to see. Mark Melancon and Tony Watson were also able to get the day off, which was certainly much-needed.

Although the Cubs are blowing teams away and lead the majors with an astounding +68 run differential, and Jake Arrieta is lighting the world on fire, the Pirates only sit 3.5 games back. The Pirates can’t let the division get too far out of reach too early in the season. The two teams face off for the first time May 2nd through 4th in Pittsburgh, and we’ll get an early chance to see where these two teams stands in relation to one another.

The Pirates have three games left against the Rockies this series, and even with a poor pitching staff at the moment, their offense should still put up a ton of runs and keep the team in all three games.

One last positive – the Pirates currently sit a half-game above the Cardinals in the division, and in the second spot in the NL Wild Card race. Obviously it’s far too early to be over-analyzing the standings, but it goes to show that for all of the pitching problems the Pirates have, they’re still in the playoff race.

And, as always, here are some links from around the web for your enjoyment.

In case you missed it, Tyler Collins of the Tigers flipped off the Detroit fans after he missed a fly ball yesterday. It’s caused some controversy to say the least.

Former beloved Pirate Neil walker hit his eighth home run yesterday, tied for second in all of baseball behind only Bryce Harper.

And in ESPN’s Week 3 Power Rankings, the Pirates slot in at tenth (this was before the last two games, both of which the Pirates won).

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