Takeaways and Throwaways – Pirates Hold On To Beat Yanks 2-1

The Pittsburgh Pirates Overcame Sloppy Play and Run Production Challenges to Take the Series Against The New York Yankees.

Welcome to Takeaways & Throwaways. Shortly after every Pittsburgh Pirates game, come to Pirates Breakdown to see our flash recap format. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the game, without making you read the same boring recap you can see anywhere else.

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FINAL:  Pittsburgh Pirates 2, New York Yankees 1

W- Ivan Nova (2-2, 2.00 ERA)  L- Jordan Montgomery (1-1, 3.78 ERA)  S- Tony Watson (6, 1.13 ERA)

Takeaways

• Josh Harrison made hard contact on both of his hits today. Harrison has quietly pushed his average up to .291.
• Ivan Nova turned in another quality start, and he particularly made great use of his curveball as an opening pitch. Nova’s success in 2016 was fueled by an increased First Strike Percentage, and this season has been much of the same. Going into today, Nova held a 63.3 F-Strike percentage, good for 13th in the National League – and first on the Pittsburgh Pirates –  among pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched.
• The coffee was lukewarm as Gregory Polanco had an up-and-down day (see below), but ended with two hits, including an infield hit in the sixth.
• Reports out of the North Shore of a goose being loose were accurate, as Phil Gosselin chipped in with a hit.
• The Stew was percolating as Chris Stewart went 2-for-3, including a triple! The three-bagger was the first in his career, a span of 1,182 plate appearances.
• It was not quite elementary, but Tony Watson showed some serious mettle in striking out Aaron Hicks on three straight pitches in the ninth after a Harrison error on a double play ball that would have ended the game.
• I’m out of puns, so I suppose I am also out of takeaways.

Throwaways

• Nova finally gave up his first walk of the season – and his first since last September 13th – to an American League pitcher. Say it with me. Baseball is weird! This really did not have an affect on the game at all, but is just quirky enough to serve as a throwaway.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates have been allergic to the big inning at times, and that was on display in the first inning. After loading the bases with no outs against a pitcher making just his third MLB start, the club came away with only one run. Polanco in particular faltered in the inning, with a bad looking strikeout. As Bob Walk noted on the telecast, a player in that spot has to put the ball in play at the very least.
• In fact, the Pirates twice loaded the bases with zero outs. In these situations, they came away with exactly one run.
• Once again poor defense made things very difficult, with Harrison booting a surefire double play ball that would end the game in the ninth. This defense has to improve if the Pirates have any designs on a playoff berth.
• Though Polanco ended his day with two hits, it was apparent that there are still holes in his swing. You could say that some of his swings-and-misses had character, but a more accurate description would be that they were ugly.

Line Of The Day

Nova gets the nod for line of the day pretty easily, as he continues to impress. His final line of work was typically Nova-like: 7 IP / 4 H / 1 ER / 1BB / 7 SO. His lone run came via a home run off of Jacoby Ellsbury‘s bat.

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The #Pirates hold on to win the game, and the series 2-1. Who was your Pirates player of the game from today?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) April 23, 2017

Up Next

The Pittsburgh Pirates will get their second look at the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs with a three-game series beginning tomorrow.  The Pirates will see two left-handers during the series in Jon Lester and Brett Anderson. As a team, the Pirates have struggled against southpaws in 2017 with a .190/.279/.319 slash.