Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call – A Gift for a Struggling Team

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

A moment no one will forget

Last night the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5. The game itself was a footnote to Gift Ngoepe‘s fantastic MLB debut. Following a short outing by Tyler Glasnow, Ngoepe was brought in as part of a double switch and it didn’t take him long to make an impact. He singled in his first at-bat, which caused his teammates to go absolutely insane.

With his call-up, Ngoepe became the first African-born MLB player. It’s hard not to root for the story in sports and it doesn’t get much better than this. It’s easy to be cynical when your team is struggling but there are moments that transcend wins and losses. There are over 1.2 billion people living in Africa and for the first time ever, they can say they have a Major League Baseball player. As Americans, it’s easy to take for granted that kind of pride but it is very real for the world’s second largest continent. Baseball is America’s Past Time but it is also a global game and for the first time, Africa and specifically South Africa can lay claim to being part of the Major League Baseball family. Congratulations to Gift Ngoepe. We wish you nothing but the best as you continue your professional baseball journey.

Another Short Outing

In case you forgot, there was also a baseball game last night. The Pirates did manage to hold on for a 6-5 win but that wasn’t because of a great starting pitching effort. Tyler Glasnow had another start of fewer than five innings. Three of Glasnow’s four starts have resulted in Glasnow, not even pitching into the fifth inning. He is averaging just over four innings per start and great stuff or not, that is below the line.

Your job as a back of the rotation pitcher is to eat some innings and keep your team in the game, not throw a lot of pitches and end your night in the middle of the fourth inning. That has become too par the course for Glasnow this season. We all know Glasnow has scary potential but right now he is not living up to the hype. Right now he’s simply showing flashes of brilliance and causing the bullpen to be massively overused every five days. He needs to be better.

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