The Pirates continue to confound anyone who thought they had a handle on the team’s chances of success this season. Francisco Liriano‘s return to the form of 2013 has a lot to do with that. Liriano threw 8 innings of shutout ball against the Phillies on Thursday, striking out 12 in the process. In both the 3rd and the 6th innings, he allowed a runner to reach second base, but retired the Phillies in order to end the threats. That was it – otherwise the Phillies flailed helplessly at Liriano’s slider and changeup all night. He threw 106 pitches, 69 of them for strikes, and was able to record just enough quick outs to get him through 8 innings. He has thrown his slider 32% of the time this year, and his changeup 26% – there is a lesson here for Gerrit Cole, and for that matter, the whole fastball-happy Pirates organization.
The big inning for the Pirates was the 6th, when Travis Snider led off with a single, Andrew McCutchen doubled, and Russell Martin – in one of the best at bats I have seen this year – thwarted A. J. Burnett at every turn, fouling off four quality pitches before driving a ball deep enough to score Snider. Gregory Polanco followed with a single, and Liriano made sure the lead stood up into the 9th. Jared Hughes was not sharp, allowing a single, a wild pitch and a walk to start the inning, forcing Clint Hurdle to summon Mark Melancon, who got a key strikeout of Ruf. He allowed a single to Carlos Ruiz to score a run before retiring Chase Utley and Grady Sizemore to preserve the victory.
On a side note, Andrew McCutchen committed one of the worst TOOTBLANs I have ever seen, failing to score from second on a double hit over the head of Ben Revere in centerfield. McCutchen somehow thought it would be wise to tag up instead of going half way to third. Even if he thought Revere had a shot at the catch, he would have had time to get back to the base and tag anyway. Just an unbelievable play that fortunately had no impact on the result.
The Bucs arrived home and took last night’s game from the Cubs, overcoming a lackluster start by Gerrit Cole, whose quality start really was not of very good quality. The Cubs are fielding a lineup of young prospects with star potential but enormous holes in their game, young minor league placeholders, and a sprinkling of mediocre veterans. Cole was life and death to preserve a margin of victory, giving up consecutive runs in the the 4th, 5th and 6th innings, which was particularly annoying considering the fact that the Pirates had just scored a run in each of the preceding at bats. Cole’s performance was sort of a definition of the opposite of a shutdown inning, more of an open up inning. Had he not bore down to retire Arismendy Alcantara on a pop fly to Chris Stewart with the bases loaded in the 6th, the game could have swung completely in the opposite direction.
Had the Pirate offense not had such a great night – answering every Cub run with at least one of their own – this could have been a less than pleasant evening. Jordy Mercer had three key hits, Neil Walker had two, and the entire lineup kept the line moving all night, which has been the strength of an offense that has been much less reliant on the long ball than in previous campaigns.
John Holdzkom was dominant again in the 7th, as was Tony Watson in the 8th. John Axford looked strong in the 9th, throwing enough quality strikes with both his fastball and curve to look like a resource for the Pirates down the stretch, and dare I say it, the post-season.
