Takeaways & Throwaways – Pittsburgh Pirates Win Chilly Home Opener

The Pittsburgh Pirates win their cold and blustery home opener 5-4. Here now are the Takeaways & Throwaways from the win.

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: Pittsburgh 5, Atlanta 4

Takeaways

• There is nothing like the pagentry of the Home Opener and the Pirates didn’t disappoint with their opening ceremony. One moment in particular really showed the heart of this team – from the dug out through to the front office. The team held a moment of silence in memory of three people who were special to the Pirates, major league baseball and the city – Sally O’ Leary,  who worked in Pirates PR for 32 years, MLB executive Katy Feeney and Pittsburgh Police officer Scott Bashioum – who was killed in the line of duty. The Pirates are as respectful a team as there is and they never fail to honor people who matter in a lovely way.
• The Pirates’ bats are finally warming up. Aside from the back to back homers from David Freese and Francisco Cervelli; Josh Harrison, Josh Bell, Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen all made some good contact in today’s game. Cutch drove Marte home in the third with his second hit of the game. Then in the fourth, Marte got a two-out double to drive Jordy Mercer home. He repeated that performace again, this time in the seventh, sending Cervelli home. Pitcher Ivan Nova even got down two good sac bunts on the day.

Throwaways

• Errors in the outfield. First, there was Gregory Polanco‘s two-base error in left field in the fifth. It was pretty well-documented that the wind was blowing toward the outfield, basically helping out anything hit in the air. Maybe it’s still trying to get familiar with the position, maybe it was early season misjudgement, maybe it was the grey sky, but Polanco’s hustle wasn’t there, and he ended up dropping a fly by outfielder Emilio Bonifacio. That allowed Bonifacio to score when centerfielder Ender Inciarte doubled in his at-bat, bringing the game to 2-1. Then, neither Marte nor Cutch nabbed a line drive to center by right fielder Nick Markakis, allowing first baseman Freddie Freeman to score, shortstop Chase d’Arnaud to advance to third and the tying run, second baseman Brandon Phillips, to step up to the plate. His single allowed Markakis to score bringing the game to 5-4. These are the types of issues/errors that fell promising teams.
• I’m reserving my full comments on the netting extended down first and third base lines until I see it myself (at tomorrow’s game) but it’s definitely compromising sightlines during certain shots during televised broadcasts. I suspect the team at Root Sports Pittsburgh will work through the situation and come up with a solution, this is the first home game of the season, after all, but it definitely needs to be addressed.

Line of the Day

Line of the day honors go to Andrew McCutchen who had 3 hits (singles) and 1 RBI in 4 at-bats. He was walked once, stole second in the sixth and took second on a wild pitch in the eighth. Oh, and by the way, he prevented a fourth run from scoring in three games with a sliding catch on a Dansby Swanson liner in the fifth inning.

W – Ivan Nova (1-0, 0.00) L – Mike Foltynewicz (0-1, 4.91) SV – Tony Watson (1)

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The #Pirates beat the Braves 5-4 in their home opener. Who is your Player Of the Game?

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) April 7, 2017

Up Next

Saturday, April 8 is Francisco Cervelli bobblehead day at PNC! The Pirates have pseudo-rookie Chad Kuhl minding the mound against Braves knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. The game begins at 7:05 p.m., but get there early if you want to get your hands on that fab swag!

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