Pittsburgh Pirates Report Card for week of May 15-20

Another homestand is in the books. Usually, when a 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates road trip/homestand ends, fans are left with a mixed feeling at best, and a negative one at worst.

Coming into this week, the Bucs fared no better than 3-3 in stretches of six games and had yet to pick up consecutive series wins. That changed on this homestand, as Pittsburgh took two of three from the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies, respectively, to finish the stretch with a record of 4-2.

The Bucs got clutch performances from their hitters, starting pitchers and relievers this week, and managed to limit their defensive mistakes as well. Taking two of three from Washington should be the most encouraging thing to take from these six games, as the Nationals have the best record in the National League and are bonafide World Series contenders.

As for the Phillies, well, the Bucs were supposed to win that series and perhaps should have come away with a series sweep. As has become a tradition this season, here is my review of the homestand, as I will break down how the Pirates performed in the key facets of America’s pastime over the past five days. Let’s get into it.

Pitching

The Pirates starting pitching did not get off on the right foot this homestand. On Tuesday, Chad Kuhl once again got roughed up, allowing six earned runs over four innings of work. Although Kuhl did hit 100 MPH on the radar gun according to Root Sports, he has not been getting the job done this season, albeit with little defensive help.

On Wednesday, Gerrit Cole did Gerrit Cole things, pitching seven innings and allowing one run on just three hits in a 6-1 win. Cole is pitching the best ball of his big league career, and it was wonderful to see his offense give him the help he deserves for a change.

Thursday afternoon saw the best and worst of Tyler Glasnow. The tall right-hander threw five innings and allowed just two earned runs, but at the same time, struggled with control and had an awful throwing error that tied the game. Glasnow pitched well enough to get the Pirates the win, and certainly turned in a much better performance than he did in Arizona.

On Friday, Trevor Williams continued his momentum from his start against the D-Backs, going 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on just four hits, suffering a hard-luck loss. Williams has made significant strides since his first start in LA, and hopefully, he can keep it going.

Saturday was business as usual for Ivan Nova, who went 7.1 innings, allowing three runs and (shocker) no walks in a 6-3 win.

To me, the most important outing for a Bucco pitcher this week came Sunday.

We all know Chad Kuhl has some nasty stuff. But so far, his sophomore season has not been a great display of that. In the series finale with the Phillies, Kuhl put it all together, allowing no runs and one hit over five solid innings for a well-deserved W.
Kuhl has been the weakest link of the Bucco’s arms, and if he can start to pull himself together, that would be a big boost for the starting rotation.
Overall, aside from Kuhl’s rough start Tuesday night, there isn’t a lot that went wrong for the rotation. For that, I see no reason to give it anything other than an A.

Grade: A

Offense

The Bucco bats were ready Tuesday night, scoring four runs along with several hard hit outs. The offense almost hit well to bail Kuhl out, scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh before running out of steam in the 8-4 loss.

Wednesday was a mixed bag for the Bucco bats. Although the Pirates put up six runs and certainly did what they had to do, it still was frustrating to see the offense struggle against draft bust Jacob Turner, as it took Pittsburgh until the sixth inning to figure it out. Nonetheless, the Bucs lit up the woeful Washington bullpen and got a three-run bomb from Josh Bell, so there wasn’t too much to criticize.

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The bats continued their momentum Thursday with a 10-run explosion. The highlight of this outburst was Adam Frazier, who went 3-5 with two runs scored and four RBI. Frazier knows how to rake, and he has earned a spot as Pittsburgh’s everyday leadoff man for the foreseeable future. Also, Bell hit his ninth dinger of the season. He’s no slouch either.

Friday was a step back, as the Bucs managed just one hit after the first inning in a 7-2 loss to the Phillies. Bell again was a bright spot, hitting an opposite field double to the north side notch to drive in the first run of the game. But the bats went silent after that, and Philly cruised to it’s only win of the three-game set.

The Bucco bats got back on track Saturday, as a David Freese home run and three hits from Frazier contributed to a six-run output. One downside to the performance, however, was a 1-5 performance from Andrew McCutchen, who also struck out three times. Cutch had been hitting the ball hard before this weekend, and we can only hope that he will come around.

Sunday, the offense was kept in check by Philly starter Aaron Nola for most of the day. But thanks to Kuhl and the bullpen, one run was all the bats would need, and Freese provided that by getting hit by the pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth inning for the game’s lone run.
All in all, the offense is at least showing signs of life. It wasn’t great over this homestand, but the Pirate bats at least had a pulse. Although there were still some awful offensive performances, we saw enough progression to where I will give them something above a C.

The bullpen

It was a quiet start to the homestand for the Pirates bullpen. Since all three games with Washington were decided by four runs or more, the ‘pen was not in a whole lot of high leverage situations.

The Philly series did not have an auspicious beginning, as the bullpen allowed four earned runs, albeit not helped out by shaky defense from Josh Bell. After Ivan Nova had done most of the Saturday labor, the pen’ was put to work in the series finale. After five solid innings from Chad Kuhl, Wade LeBlanc came on in relief in the sixth inning. LeBlanc did his job, going 1 and 1/3 of shutout ball before giving way to the dominant Juan Nicasio with one out in the seventh. Nicasio did his job and Felipe Rivero did his in the eighth before Tony Watson closed out the 1-0 triumph with his 10th save.

Overall, this was somewhat of a mixed week for the Bucco bullpen. Tuesday and Friday saw some struggles, while Sunday was one of the better late game performances we’ve seen this season. Since this was an up and down homestand for the relievers, I will grade it as such.

Grade: C+

In conclusion

This homestand was the most encouraging the Pirates had all season. The took on what is arguably the best team in baseball and won two of three, and followed that up by finishing with two straight wins against a considerably weaker Phillies team.

Now the Bucs will continue their battle with the NL East, as they travel to Atlanta for four games with the Bravos before returning to PNC Park for a weekend tilt with the New York Mets. Given that both of those teams are, well, awful, this could be a golden opportunity for Pittsburgh to get back to the .500 mark.

Next: Adam Frazier Continues To Defy The Odds

I would like to take this time to gush about the great Adam Frazier. Since coming off the DL, he has been hitting everything in site, and like his teammate David Freese said in an interview after Saturday’s game, Frazier has the potential to win a batting title one day. He is that good at raking. I am proud to say that I was high on Frazier from day one, and hopefully, the rest of the city is starting to see that.

Well, that’s all I have to say about this homestand. Till next time!