Each Monday for the rest of the season, Pirates Breakdown will give you their Pittsburgh Pirates of the Week. This week we picked the four players who did an outstanding job from August 1-7.
The Pittsburgh Pirates played a little better last week than they did the week before, going 3-3 in the series at Atlanta (1-2) and against Cincinnati (2-1). They are still just outside of a playoff position and will need start winning more games if they plan to leapfrog the teams in front of them. Here are some of the stand out performances the team received in the previous week.
Sean Rodriguez
Sean Rodriguez may not have had many at-bats last week, but one of them was crucial last Friday. After Tony Watson blew the save opportunity and allowed the Reds to score, Rodriguez came up in the bottom of the ninth inning and blasted a solo shot to give the Pirates a much needed win. As he has done all season, Rodriguez continues to take advantage of playing time when he receives it and provides Clint Hurdle with a very strong bat off of the bench.
[mlbvideo id=”1014260383″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Sean Rodriguez Weekly Snapshot
[table id=165 /]Ryan Vogelsong
Ryan Vogelsong is the first of three pitchers to make the list this week. Vogelsong suffered a horrific injury on May 23rd, and many people thought that the combination of his age and severity of the injury would mark this as the end of his career. Vogelsong battled back from the injury and turned in a great performance on Thursday. He did not factor into the decision, but he threw six quality innings and gave up just one run on three hits and a walk to go along with six strikeouts.
[mlbvideo id=”1010392383″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Ryan Vogelsong Weekly Snapshot
[table id=166 /]Jameson Taillon
This marks the third week in a row that Jameson Taillon has been one of the four players featured, and he certainly deserves the recognition. Like Vogelsong, he did not factor into the decision this week, coming against the Reds on Friday. Also like Vogelsong, Taillon pitched six innings and kept his opponent to just one run. He also walked one and struck out six, like Vogelsong did the day before. The only difference was that Taillon allowed three more hits than Vogelsong. With the state of the rotation not being exactly where management thought it would be at this point of the season, starts like Taillon’s (and Vogelsong’s) are just want the team needs.
[mlbvideo id=”1014193683″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Jameson Taillon Weekly Snapshot
[table id=167 /]Ivan Nova
Rounding out this week’s list is the newly acquired Ivan Nova. Nova had a memorable debut with his new club, earning the victory in the 5-3 win over the Reds. Nova one upped Taillon and Vogelsong in the innings department, making it into the seventh. He allowed three runs on six hits and no walks and added five strikeouts to his season total. It was an impressive debut and hopefully he’ll keep this up for the Pirates as the season rolls on.
[mlbvideo id=”1019095183″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Ivan Nova Weekly Snapshot
[table id=168 /]So which player do you think had the best performance last week? Was it Rodriguez picking up his closer, or one of the great performance from the rotation? Make sure you check out our poll on Twitter and vote!
Who is your choice for #Pirates Player of the Week?
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) August 7, 2016
Check back next week to see who takes the honors.
Featured Photo Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
