Takeaways And Throwaways – Pittsburgh Pirates Lose 4-3 Heartbreaker to Boston Red Sox

The Pittsburgh Pirates drop a frustrating game to the Red Sox 4-3.

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.

FINAL: Red Sox 4, Pirates 3 

Sponsored By

Takeaways

• Chad Kuhl was absolutely fantastic. He pretty much kept the Red Sox off-balance all day. The Pirates’ offense has left a lot to be desired so the starting pitching really needs to pick up the slack. Today, Chad Kuhl did just that.
• Cutch Happened! In the first inning, following a Jordy Mercer walk, Andrew McCutchen hit his first home run of the young season. It gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead and really helped the team ease into the game.
• David Freese had a very good, albeit quiet day at the plate. He went 0-1 but drew three walks on the day. He really is committed to putting together a quality at-bat every single time he steps to the plate.

Throwaways

• Philip Gosselin had a very poor defensive day. He nearly missed stepping on second base on a double play attempt and late in the game, he didn’t get to second base in time to field a throw on a force play.
• Starling Marte really had himself a relatively poor game as well. He went 0-3 at the plate with two strikeouts and a walk. He also made a very poor throw to second base on the aforementioned Gosselin play.
• Daniel Hudson and Juan Nicasio allowed the Red Sox to take the lead in the eighth inning. They really looked terrible. Hudson especially struggled with command. Nicasio then entered the game with men on base and the Red Sox took advantage of it.

Line Of the Day:

The line of the day goes to Pirates’ starter, Chad Kuhl. Kind of no-brainer as he went 6.1 innings, allowed one run on five hits with six strikeouts. Kuhl had a fantastic command of the strike zone and located his fastball beautifully as he had zero walks allowed on the day.

W- Barnes (1-0, 0.00ERA) L– Nicasio (0-2, 4.15ERA

Vote in our Player of the Game Poll

After each game, win or lose, Pirates Breakdown will ask YOU for your Pittsburgh Pirates player of the game. Hop over to our twitter to cast your vote! I imagine Kuhl will get most of the votes in this one.

The Pirates drop a heartbreaker to the Red Sox 4-3. Who is your Pirates player of the game?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) April 13, 2017

Up Next

The Pittsburgh Pirates will travel to Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Cubs. Not exactly the rest recipe when a team is currently mired in a losing streak. Game one of the three-game series will feature Gerrit Cole taking on Kyle Hendricks. First pitch is scheduled for 2:20 pm.