The Pirates bats were silenced by the Detroit pitching staff who held the Pirates to two hits on the day. The lack of fense is a recurring problem for Maholm, who has the least run support of any starting pitcher in the league, garnering an average of 2.04 runs per game. That is one full run less than the second to last statistics of Giants pitcher Madison Bumgardner, who receives an average run support of 3.18 runs per game. Maholm has an ERA of 3.65 and his pitching has improved further through the month of May. In May Maholm has given up 8 runs total in 4 starts, which turned out to be 3 loses and a no decision. Maholm has not given up more than 3 runs per game in the month of May, yet has not found himself in the win column.
It’s a sad waste of quality starts when Maholm performs so well yet only has one win this season. The positive one can take away is that Maholm is pitching much better than he has in recent years and that the wheel of fortune is bound to spin in his direction in terms of offensive support. The Pirates offense exploded the past two nights but is still not playing up to its potential as our pitchers continue to be a pleasant surprise. This is aside from Neil Walker, who seems to be avoiding the sophomore slump as he is 8th in the National League with 30 RBI’s. Walker also leads the Pirates in runs with 28 on the season.
Ronny Cedeno also has been hot recently, providing a spark at the bottom of the order as he is batting .381 in the past week. McCutchen seems to be overcoming a slow start. I expect McCutchen to bat around .300 and therefore feel he is not playing up to his potential as he is currently batting .257, but in the past week McCutchen has been playing fantastic batting .409. Additionally, one should consider that a walk does not boost an average but does put a player on base and McCutchen has 25 walks this season (7th in the National League). Thus, McCutchen does have the highest on-base percentage on the Pirates at .359.
The high ceiling of potential for young players Pedro Alvarez and Jose Tabata is not yet being met this season. Injuries for one have hampered both players. Alvarez is currently on the fifteen day disabled list and hopefully will recover and also rediscover his swing as he takes on a short stint in the minors. Alvarez is currently batting .208, but the larger concern is he has only belted 2 home runs last year. Alvarez has the potential to be a power hitter for the Pirates, as I was expecting at least 30 home runs out of Alvarez this season and optimistically maybe 40 home runs.
Jose Tabata was off to a fast start this season, having collected the most hits of any national league player since the All Star break last season and continuing on into the month of April in the 2011 season. However, Tabata’s bats have recently gone cold and he like Alvarez faced injury. Tabata injured his hamstring, but seems good to go from here and a turnaround seems to be in the making as he has a pair of two hit games in a four game span.
The Pirates are 22-24, despite not supporting the pitching of Paul Maholm who leads the team in ERA (3.65) and strikeouts (44). The positive of this is that there is indeed hope for a winning record. If the offense comes out to support Maholm, there is a good chance Maholm will win the Pirates the game. Additionally, recently our offense has been productive through the work of McCutchen, Walker, and Cedeno particularly. However, our offense is still not yet even at its best as Alvarez and Tabata still need to find their groove. If out offense begins hitting on all cylinders, the Pirates could be playing meaningful baseball in June, a rare occurrence for the young Pittsburgh sports fan such as myself.
wrtiten by Adriana deVries Follow Adriana on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/agedevries
Yea, but he doesn't help much by putting the team in big holes during the first two innings, either.
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