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 8-14.
The Pittsburgh Pirates faced the San Diego Padres at home and then visited the Los Angeles Dodgers last week and went 4-2 in those games. A lot of players contributed to the success the team had, but here are our choices as the best from the last seven days.
Chad Kuhl
Chad Kuhl started two games for the Pirates last week and won both to maintain his undefeated record. He defeated the Padres on August 9th and then beat the Dodgers on the 14th. In both starts Kuhl pitched six innings and gave up just two runs. He had some control issues against the Padres as he walked four batters, but bounced back against the Dodgers and did not issue a free pass. He’ll look to keep his undefeated streak alive in his next start, which should be on Saturday against the Marlins at PNC Park.
[mlbvideo id=”1031242783″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Chad Kuhl Weekly Snapshot
[table id=171 /]Jameson Taillon
Jameson Taillon makes the list again after his brilliant start against the Padres on August 11th. Taillon earned his first win at PNC Park in his second eight inning shutout in his young career. In those eight frames, he allowed three hits and two walks to go along with four strikeouts. At the rate Taillon is pitching this year, he has just about earned a permanent spot on this list. He’ll face a tough opponent in his next start on Tuesday in San Francisco, so hopefully he can replicate last week’s outing.
[mlbvideo id=”1038586083″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Jameson Taillon Weekly Snapshot
[table id=172 /]Andrew McCutchen
Andrew McCutchen had himself quite a week, showing incredible patience at the plate. McCutchen had two separate games where he drew three walks and added two more over the course of the week to give him eight total. He also has started to run a little more as he swiped two bases, both against the Dodgers. If McCutchen can continue to improve at the plate, he’ll give the Pirates a huge boost as they battle for one of the Wild Card positions in a tight race as the season winds down.
[mlbvideo id=”1044291783″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Andrew McCutchen Weekly Snapshot
[table id=173 /]Josh Harrison
Josh Harrison had a very good week and topped it off with a four hit performance in Sunday’s win over the Dodgers. Harrison has hit in many different spots in the lineup this season and just like his versatility in the field, he is not fazed whether he is at the top of the batting order or somewhere else. He was able to bring his batting average for the season up five points to .275 over the last week and will look to keep his hot bat going when the team takes on San Francisco starting on Monday.
[mlbvideo id=”1046263983″ width=”400″ height=”224″ /]Josh Harrison Weekly Snapshot
[table id=174 /]Your Choice
Now that you have had a chance to read about our four choices, make sure you check out the Twitter poll and vote! New polls go up every Sunday at approximately 6 pm.
The Pirates went 4-2 this week with key contributions from many. Who is your Pirates Player of the Week?
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) August 15, 2016
Featured Photo Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
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