Jon Niese Was Better Than His Line Last Night

Last night Jon Niese made his Pittsburgh Pirate debut and the final results were not too pretty. Niese went five innings and surrendered five runs, four earned, on five hits, a walk, he hit a batter, and he struck out seven. However, Niese was better than this final line indicates.

First of all, his WHIP last night was 1.20 which is a solid WHIP. Also, Niese’s seven strikeouts were very good to see as last season he only averaged 5.76 K/9. Niese was also victimized by some very poor defense last night. A Starling Marte error in the third inning led to an unearned run, and was also responsible for a second run that inning even though it was earned.

In the fifth inning poor defense struck yet again. Gregory Polanco grossly misplayed a ball hit by Stephen Piscotty that caused what should have been a double into a triple. As a result, the Cardinals were able to score a run on a Matt Holliday ground out that would not have scored a run if Piscotty was on second base.

Niese’s xFIP last night was 3.28. Once again, this shows that Niese pitched better than his final line indicated and that he was victimized by some poor defense.

A lot of Pirate fans gave up on Niese long before last night’s start. Now, fans are really ready to run him out-of-town. But he pitched better than his final indicated last night and I fully expect Niese to get better results moving forward. The Pirates are normally a very good defensive team, this did not happen last night and that burnt Niese. I do not expect that to be an issue in future starts.