Pittsburgh Pirates: Pirates Fall to the Chicago Cubs 5-1

Saturday afternoon the Pittsburgh Pirates were looking to take two games in a row against the dreaded Chicago Cubs and Jake Arrieta 

Today marks game number two on the fresh 2021 season for your Pittsburgh Pirates. After Thursday’s win, the Pirates were flying high off of a big performance from the bullpen, most notably. This time we saw an old-time foe in Jake Arrieta face off against newly acquired Tyler Anderson.

Tyler Anderson

Anderson came to the Pirates this offseason hoping to become one of the anchor lefty starters this season and today’s game marked his regular-season debut. Early on, you could hear Anderson grunt after every pitch, and it seemed like he was amped up from jump street. Anderson is known as a strike-thrower, and despite having the umpire give the Pirates fits, he threw a ton of them today.

Out of the 92 pitches he threw in total, he had 64 strikes which comes out to be around 69% strikes thrown. If you ask me, several balls that were called should have gone the other way. We could be talking about 72-73% strike rate. Anderson overall had a tremendous game despite his final line. Even though there was some bad calls and two errors, he performed how I expected.

Anderson’s final line read, 5IP, 5 hits, 3ER, 7K’s, 2BB’s on 92 pitches thrown. It’s obvious that this team isn’t challenging for an N.L pennant, but If guys like Anderson perform like they did today, you might be able to swing some crucial deals towards the deadline and continue to bolster this farm system.

The Bullpen

OOF, this time around, the bullpen didn’t look so hot today. In the 6th inning, Clay Holmes came on to relieve Anderson. Now Holmes didn’t have a terrible day today, but it wasn’t great like Thursday’s performance. After striking out Marisnick, Holmes left a juicy ball over the plate, and Jason Heyward hit that ball to Mars. His line read, 1IP, 1 Hit, 1K, 1ER.

Now before I get overly critical of Wil Crowe, I will make it known I really like what he has to offer. Today, though, Crowe looked extremely rough. His outing today was sort of Jekyll and Hyde with flashes of great break on his pitches and getting swings and misses, and then the Hyde showed with 2BB’s and 2WP’s. Crowe was yanked after .2IP with 2K’s 2BB’s 1ER, 1 Hit.

Feliz came on, and in true Feliz fashion, he had to take the count all the way to 3-2, but he got us out of a jam with a K. I was never a fan of Feliz, and I think some other pitchers were more deserving of a spot over him, but he got the job done in his outing today.

On came the very young Luis Oviedo to make his Pirates debut and his Major League debut all at once for some mop-up duty. As we all know, he was acquired by the Mets in the Rule 5 draft this winter, and then the Pirates pulled the trigger on a trade to acquire him in a trade.

Oviedo looked really good and composed, retiring the side. His fastball looked lively, and his breaking stuff looked amazing. I know it’s only one inning, but he put a smile on my face despite a miserable day for the most part. I’m curious if the 21-year-old gets more playing time in more crucial situations later on in the season.

The Bats

Before we get into the bats, I need to make known of the potential scary situation Pirates fans may be in. Ke’bryan Hayes left today’s game with a left-hand injury. We’re used to bad luck in Pittsburgh, but I’m just hoping it’s not a hamate bone injury. Jason Mackey, not long after, said Hayes left with left wrist discomfort. Hopefully, it’s just a bruise/sprain and nothing more.

Overall the Pirates had a miserable day at the bat racks for the most part. Other than Kevin Newman’s RBI single, the Pirates didn’t score another run, despite getting 6 hits as a team this afternoon. No one in the lineup could muster more than 1 hit today, and sadly we struck out 11 times today after Thursday’s 11 walks. The Pirates ultimately fell 5-1 to the Cubs. Tomorrow the Pirates look to take the rubber match with Mitch Keller set to pitch.

Final Thoughts

1.PLEASE GOD, NO BAD INJURY FOR HAYES
2.Tyler Anderson will be just fine in the rotation
3.Luis Oviedo surprised me today
4.I’m not too fond of Jake Arrieta