In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates
Reset and Refocus
After the hoopla that was Tyler Glasnow‘s MLB debut, the Pittsburgh Pirates now must reset and refocus as they welcome the Chicago Cubs to PNC Park.
Pittsburgh is catching Chicago at the right time. The Cubs are 5-13 in their last 18 games. They will be without Dexter Foweler, who had a shot at re-joining the club in time for this series. The Pirates would have to contend with Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester and John Lackey, but with Arrieta looking human (more on that below), the club has a good shot at taking two out of three in this series.
Doing so would put the Pittsburgh Pirates 7.5 games back at the All-Star Break. That is still a daunting figure, yet it feels light years removed from the season-high 14.5 mark.
Arrieta Back Down to Earth?
Fans looking for reasons to be optimistic about facing Arrieta won’t have to look far. Here are the Cy Young-winner’s recent splits:
| Split | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | HR | BB | SO | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 7 days | 1 | 26 | 24 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2.00 | .333 | .385 | .500 | .885 |
| Last 14 days | 2 | 50 | 42 | 9 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 1.14 | .286 | .388 | .476 | .864 |
| Last 28 days | 5 | 125 | 107 | 13 | 22 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 28 | 1.75 | .206 | .315 | .327 | .642 |
What I find most interesting about his recent performance, is that his strikeout ability seems to come and go. When he’s at his best, Arrieta is always able to get by the occasional lack of control by focusing on the next batter and inducing a strikeout. If that ability has left him, and the Pirates practice patience, they may be able to clog the base paths and make things happen.
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Today’s Starter
As part of our Wake Up Call, we will now be giving you the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates versus Arrieta.
| Name | PA | AB | H | 2B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew McCutchen | 41 | 35 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 10 | .314 | .415 | .400 | .815 |
| Gregory Polanco | 29 | 28 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | .143 | .172 | .143 | .315 |
| Starling Marte | 25 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | .167 | .200 | .167 | .367 |
| Matthew Joyce | 23 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | .350 | .391 | .600 | .991 |
| Josh Harrison | 19 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | .056 | .105 | .111 | .216 |
| John Jaso | 17 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | .071 | .235 | .071 | .307 |
| Jung Ho Kang | 15 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .154 | .267 | .154 | .421 |
| Jordy Mercer | 13 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .077 | .077 | .077 | .154 |
| David Freese | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Erik Kratz | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Sean Rodriguez | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .333 | .667 |
| Total | 201 | 183 | 33 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 52 | .180 | .249 | .230 | .478 |
Yesterday’s Player Of The Game
After each game – win or lose – we put out a Twitter Poll to find out who you feel should take home ‘Player of the Game’ honors. Here now is yesterday’s results, for each game.
Who is your #Pirates player of the game after 5-1 loss to Cardinals?
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) July 7, 2016
Keep an eye out for our POTG polls after each game on our twitter feed after each game, win or lose.
Baseball Talk on the Web
- Rockies OF Carlos Gonzalez denies asking for a trade.
- FanGraphs has a great piece looking at the evolution of Angels OF Mike Trout
- Baseball Prospectus put out their annual midseason Top 50 Prospect update.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
