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FINAL: Pittsburgh Pirates 7, Colorado Rockies 2
W – Jameson Taillon (3-1, 2.90 ERA) L – Kyle Freeland (7-4, 3.57 ERA)
Takeaways
- Jameson Taillon returned with as good of an outing as he could ask for in his first start back since recovering from testicular cancer. Taillon tossed five scoreless innings of relief, striking out five. It was the fifth quality start by Taillon in seven starts. Surely, Taillon was emotional on the mound, his first major-league start since May 3. Nevertheless, he found a way to harness his emotions and deliver a solid outing.
- Josh Harrison continued his impressive 2017 at the plate by smacking a two-run home run in the first inning. The blast, Harrison’s eighth of the season, puts him only five away from tying his career-high of 13 set back in 2014. However, Harrison hit 13 in 550 plate appearances three years ago. This year, he’s hit eight in 267 at-bats. Harrison’s surprise power increase is huge despite the Pirates entering Monday night 29th in MLB with 57 home runs. If Harrison can continue hitting homers, it will do wonders for the Pirates’ already impressive top of the order.
- Harrison also kick-started the Pirates’ two-run rally in the bottom of the third inning. Shortstop Trevor Story fielded Harrison’s grounder and threw to first base, but it drew Mark Reynolds off the bag. Nonetheless, Reynolds had a chance to tag Harrison, but the runner slid into first base and avoided the tag. Harrison came around to score two batters later on David Freese‘s double to right field. Harrison also singled in the sixth to reach base for a third time. With each game, he continues to make his case for a second All-Star berth.
- Max Moroff got his third start of the season and made the most of it. The rookie started at second base and reach base three times, scoring twice, and hit a sacrifice fly. Moroff’s third time that he reached was the most ideal, as it came on a fielder’s choice. However, him reaching turned out to be important as, two batters later, Gregory Polanco singled him in to make it 5-1, Pirates. Moroff didn’t have any hits, but it was a productive 0-2 day.
Throwaways
- Wade LeBlanc‘s recent struggles continued on Monday night. In his last four appearances, LeBlanc has allowed eight runs in 4.1 innings pitched for a 16.62 ERA in that span. LeBlanc relieved Taillon in the sixth and started strong, getting two quick outs, but allowed a double to Ian Desmond to extend the inning. After the Rockies’ first extra-base hit of the day, Trevor Story singled Desmond in for their first run of the day. LeBlanc hasn’t had a scoreless outing since tossing a scoreless outing against the New York Mets on June 3.
- Gregory Polanco did collect an RBI single in the sixth, but finished the day 1-5. Worst of all, Polanco stranded five runners. As the No. 3 hitter, this is troubling. Polanco has mightily struggled in the three hole, batting .162 in it for eight games.
Line of the Day
Up Next
Gerrit Cole (3-6, 4.83 ERA) looks to turn things around personally as he toes the rubber for the Pirates against Tyler Chatwood (6-7, 4.37 ERA) of the Rockies. After throwing quality starts in eight of his first nine starts in 2017, Cole has struggled mightily in his last four starts. Cole hasn’t gone past the fifth inning in any of them and has allowed at least fours runs in all four starts. That’s amounted to a 10.71 ERA after a 2.84 ERA in his first nine starts. Meanwhile, Chatwood is coming off back-to-back quality starts, but has allowed four runs or more in seven of 13 starts. First pitch is at 7:05 from PNC Park.
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