Takeaways and Throwaways – Pirates Fall in Extras

The Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 in ten innings.  Three solo home runs were not enough for the Bucs as those ended up being the only hits.

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FINAL: Cincinnati Reds 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 3

Takeaways 

• Gerrit Cole was well on his way to earning his first career victory against the Reds after pitching five solid innings of shutout baseball.  Then came the sixth inning.  After one quick out, Cole forced Billy Hamilton to roll over a ground ball to second baseman Phil Gosselin.  He couldn’t make the play and Hamilton reached base. Joey Votto then drew a walk.  Adam Duvall followed with a three-run shot into the left field seats.   Just like that Cincinnati took a 3-2 lead.  Cole remains winless against the Reds.  Over six innings pitched, he gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits and a walk.  He struck out seven.  What ended up being a good night for Cole could have been a great one, but needless to say, a quality start is a quality start.
• The Pirates took advantage of hitter friendly Great American Ballpark by hitting three wind aided home runs.  Andrew McCutchen got things going early by smacking a solo home run in the top of the first.  Josh Harrison then hit solo home shots in both the sixth and eighth inning.

 Throwaways

• The rest of the offense did not record a hit.  Besides Harrison and McCutchen, Pirate hitters went 0-28 with three walks and two HBP.  The team as whole only struck out only eight times so it wasn’t like they were being mowed down.  They didn’t hit the ball hard all game.  After looking more comfortable at the plate in Miami over the past two games, Gregory Polanco struggled tonight going 0-4 with two strikeouts.  Overall this season, Polanco is hitting .247/.333/.338 with zero home runs and seven doubles.  He will need to find a way to drive the ball with more authority if the Pirates’ offense wants to be successful.
• Although Juan Nicasio and Felipe Rivero combined to throw three solid innings of no hit ball, Daniel Hudson ultimately lost the game in the bottom of the tenth inning.  With two outs and a man on second, Billy Hamilton pulled a single to right field scoring the winning run.  Hamilton went 2-5 with three steals.  He absolutely terrorizes the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Hudson on the other hand has struggled mightily as of late giving up eight earned runs over his past 1.2 innings pitched.

Line Of the Day

Josh Harrison was 2-4 with two home runs.  He is now tied for the team lead with four.

W- Michael Lorenzen (2-0, 4.70 ERA) L- Daniel Hudson (0-1, 9.28 ERA)

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The #Pirates fall to the Reds 4-3 in the opening game of the series. Who is your Pirates player of the game?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) May 2, 2017

Up Next

Tyler Glasnow will look to get on track tomorrow night in his second start against the Reds this year.  Scott Feldman will oppose him.  Game starts at 7:10.