Pittsburgh Pirates: Youngster Shine, Other Takeaways From Series Victory vs Arizona

Zach Thompson stays hot

After a woeful first month of his Pirate career, Zach Thompson has turned a corner since the 1st of May. Thompson started for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon and turned in yet another stellar start while helping to pitch the Bucs to a series victory.

The big righty pitched 5 scoreless inning, limiting the Diamondbacks to 4 hits, while walking a pair and striking out 4. This outing lowered his ERA, which was over 10.00 on May 1st, to 4.60 and his FIP to 4.81.

Thompson has now pitched in 7 games since May 1st, with 6 starts, posting a 2.09 ERA in 30.2 innings pitched. He has allowed just 24 hits and 3 home runs in these 30.2 innings pitched, while walking just 6.5% of batters faced and striking out 18.7%.

In his last 7 outings Thompson has ridden an increased usage of his cutter to success. This is what also led to him finding success with the Miami Marlins in what appeared to be a breakout campaign last season.

Contreras looks like a budding ace and José Quintana is in the process of putting together the best season of his career. JT Brubaker has pitched to the tun of a sub-4.00 ERA when you takeaway his first two starts of the season and Thompson has been excellent for over a month. If the Pirates can start to get consistent starts from Mitch Keller, or anyone else in the final spot of the rotation, the team could start to put together a solid pitching rotation.