In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped last night’s tilt to the Detroit Tigers by a score of 7-3. You can check out our TnTs from the game, but there were two clear stories in the game.
Vogelsong looks capable
Ryan Vogelsong looked very comfortable on the mound and seemed every bit as efficient as one could expect from the veteran. In Vogelsong’s five innings of work, 41 of his 66 pitches went for strikes. He struck out five without issuing a walk.
It would be hard to imagine a successful scenario for the Pirates if Vogelsong has to do more than make the occasional spot start, but last night’s outing was an encouraging one.
Bullpen taxation
Vogelsong was pulled after five innings, perhaps a bit prematurely. He gave way to the Pirates bullpen, which has been heavily taxed early in the 2016 campaign. Going into last night’s contest, the bullpen had pitched 3.78 innings per game, an alarming number. The shakiness towards the bottom of the bullpen should be a huge concern for a team that has some questions in its starting rotation. The ineffectiveness shown by Arquiemedes Caminero and Cory Luebke last night necessitated the use of Neftali Feliz. Though he pitched just one-third of an inning, Feliz’s 10-pitch appearance could be deemed unnecessary at best.
Going into the 2016 season, the bullpen was considered to be a strong weapon for the club, but so far that has not been the case aside from Feliz, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon.
Yesterday’s player of the game
Even during losing efforts, Pirates Breakdown will put out a poll asking readers for a player of the game. Here now are the results from last night’s poll:
It's time for the #Pirates player of the game fan Twitter poll following 7-3 loss.
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) April 14, 2016
Make sure to watch for this poll on our twitter feed after each game.
Baseball talk on the web
- Motor City Bengals opines that Tigers manager Brad Ausmus is not learning from his mistakes.
- MLB Daily Dish wonders which prospects you’ll be watching this year.
- Today’s Knuckleball wonders if Brandon Crawford (soon to be Gerrit Cole‘s brother in law) is the best offensive shortstop in the game.
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