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| Felipe added a little drama but brought it home (photo Pittsburgh Pirates) |
Kevin Shackelford and AJ traded zeroes in the sixth. Drew Storen and Huddy did the same in the seventh. The Bucs blew a golden opp in the eighth against Micheal Lorenzen. A Cutch walk and J-Bell double put runners at second and third. After a J-Hay lineout, JJ was given an intentional pass to load 'em.It proved a good move when S-Rod banged into a 6-4-3 DP and a potential crooked number turned into another goose egg. Juan Nicasio also put up a zip the more traditional 1-2-3 way. Raisel Iglesias gave up a single-double combo to Eli and Freeser to open the ninth, and this time the Bucs cashed in on a two-run rap by Starling. He stole second and moved to third on a grounder, but surprisingly didn't tag on Cucth's medium fly to right and ended up stranded. Felipe came on and a single, later followed by S-Rod's two-out misthrow (he's not having day to write home about), brought up Joey Votto as the tying run. He walked for the fifth time, taking a borderline 3-2 heater to load the bases. But a bouncer later, it was all good and the Jolly Roger unfurled.
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| JJ chased the first runs home (photo Pittsburgh Pirates) |
Not a thing of beauty, to be sure. 19 runners were left aboard between the two clubs. The Bucs struck out eight more times, bringing the series total to 33. The staff walked seven more after losing six in the opener, a disturbing trend as of late. But hey - they're 3-of-4 in their little league unis; we say make them the alt jersey.
Notes:
- Starling had three hits, JJ a knock and two walks and the trio of Cutch, J-Bell & Eli had a rap and a walk. Partay and Jaso both had a pair of RBI. Marte, btw, has played in just 50 games but holds the team lead in stolen bases with 13.
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| Marte Partay! (photo Pittsburgh Pirates) |
- Joey Votto walked five times. He tied the MLB record for most pitches seen in five plate appearances with 43 (D'Angelo Jimenez, SD - 2001) since 1988 when pitch count records were first officially kept. Of course, Joey has the teensiest strike zone in the league; he'll be hugely out-of-luck when the robo-umps arrive.
- In his radio show, Neal Huntington said the Bucs may go to a six-man rotation or skip some starts to create innings for Brault/Glasnow and that Austin Meadows will not get a call up. They want him, as previously noted, to play winter ball. (Austin was pulled from the Indy game for undisclosed reasons about the same time Fraze was injured, so NH may have spoken too soon). He said September call-ups will be two-tiered, with an early call followed with some later post-playoff additions.
- Going into today, Juan Nicasio leads the majors in appearances with 64; Felipe Rivero is sixth at 61 though neither is top ten in bullpen innings worked. Both, btw, worked an inning today. Seven of the top 12 pitchers in games pitched come from the NL Central.
- Tyler Mahle's C Chad Wallach was also making his big league bow. Chad is familiar with Tyler as they were the Louisville battery, so while green, there was a comfort zone between the pair. It's the second time this year that Cincy has fielded a MLB debut battery.
- The Tigers recalled OF JaCoby Jones from AAA Toledo. He was dealt to Motown in 2015 for Joakim Soria, and Jones has developed into a good glove, bad bat CF'er.
5 comments:
Not the least bit surprised that Marte leads the team in steals. I was hoping that Josh Harrison might get to 20 or so, and of course McCutchen is capable but just isn't interested in running (though his bum knee probably has something to do with that). Polanco should steal some bases in theory, but he can't stay on the field. All in all this is a pretty lead-footed team. For both traditional and practical reasons, it seems to me that it is a very big plus, especially for NL clubs, if they can run. I know that sabremetrics devotees hate the stolen base, but as far as I am concerned it is the single most underutilized weapon in baseball today. And for a team that has as much trouble as the Pirates to with leaving men on base, they would do well to force the action a lot more than they do, even if they don't have a lot of true base thieves on the roster at present.
These guys don't run very well, Will. You're right - no pressure as base runners, either as a threat to steal or taking the extra base. That's a real damper on a team that lacks power. Polanco, as u note, isn't much of a threat because of his hammy and Fraze is the only bench guy that can run. I know it's a broken record, but the team's roster construction has been pretty haphazard this year.
It's not only that. Seems to me---and we have talked about this before so I'll keep it brief---that this entire organization is built mostly along American League lines. And that it has been this way ever since Neal Huntington, former Cleveland assistant GM, took over. Power arms and power bats seems to be their idea, but while we have seen some power arms, there haven't been many power bats. And little speed other than Marte. Not a good combo.
Dunno that I'd say that, Will - Pedro, Kang & J-Bell are the only bangers I can think of in the NH era; none in the pipeline that I can see, tho they do seem to like hit-tool only guys in the early rounds of the draft. I think they decided on a pitcher-heavy construct and have kinda benignly neglected the position players' The part that makes it hard is that they really like to hoard players, so it's tough to swing upgrade deals when u value your peeps so highly. Still, and I always use this caveat, I'm not privy to the budget so I can't say that their performance isn't reined in by financial considerations both in the short and long term.
Fair and balanced points as always, Ron! :-D
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