The Pittsburgh Pirates took on the Chicago Cubs this weekend in their opening series. While the season started with a win, the Pirates went on to drop back-to-back games to close out the series. However, there are some positives the Pirates can take from these three games.

The Pirates can hit…

The expectations for the Pirates were low coming into the season. Those expectations were that the Pirates would come out of the opening series having suffered three straight no-hit games with a combined score of 90-0. At least that was what most people not paying close attention would have told you.

However, the Battlin’ Bucs showed up this weekend. In the opener, the Pirates recorded nine hits. They were consistently moving runners over either with base hits or productive outs.  Despite only recording nine runs, they were not striking out at a high rate. They found ways to get on base and put the ball in play. They are tied for fourth in the league in base on balls with 16.

Colin Moran, Kevin Newman, Adam Frazier and Phillip Evans all recorded three hits on the weekend. Bryan Reynolds leads the team with four hits and appears to be back in 2019 shape at the plate. And I don’t want to fail to mention that the three hits for Evans are in only four at-bats.

…but not for power

The Pirates hitters did, unfortunately, show what we all feared. They cannot hit the ball out of the ballpark. So they are going to need guys like Moran, Evans and Reynolds to keep hitting at 30%+ rate. That is obviously not sustainable.

The power outage will be magnified in the next several games with Ke’Bryan Hayes hitting the Injured List (IL). Hayes got his finger caught on the knob of the bat while swinging on Saturday. While X-rays were negative, the Pirates still placed him on the IL out of an abundance of caution. However, Hayes was the only player aside from Moran that hit the ball out of the park this weekend. Also, Gregory Polanco was brutally bad and is essentially worthless to the team at this point.

It will be very difficult to get consistent runs across without the occasional homerun. And it looks like even occasional homeruns are not in the Pirates repertoire this season.

Captain Redbeard pic.twitter.com/rP4LBPquZZ

— Pirates (@Pirates) April 4, 2021

The Pirates can pitch…

The bullpen exceeded expectations this weekend. In the opener, the pen recorded six innings, gave up one run, and only one hit. They followed up that effort the latter two games by giving up only three runs in eight innings pitched. The bullpen played a big part in Sunday’s comeback that came up a run short.

David Bednar highlighted the weekend with two scoreless innings. Also, Rich Rodriguez recorded his first save of the season with ease.

…except for the starters

Several words, all negative, come to mind when reflecting on the starting pitching performances. Chad Kuhl could not throw a strike in his three innings of work. The first inning for him felt similar to the pandemic as it felt like it may never end. He snuck out of it with minimal damage on the scoreboard but he failed the eyeball test for anyone watching.

Tyler Anderson was a little better. He at least gave the bullpen a break by lasting five innings. He also recorded seven strikeouts in the outing. However, he failed to record a Quality Start and this team will struggle to win without several of those. They are just not talented enough with the bat to sustain back-to-back starts allowing 3+ runs.

And if they cannot sustain back-to-back starts, they certainly cannot sustain three in a row. So it didn’t help that Mitch Keller was abysmal yesterday. In only three innings, he walked four and gave up three runs. He also looked like his confidence is already shot.  It is really difficult to watch for a guy that had such potential. The Pirates may need to look into keeping an additional bullpen arm instead of an extra bench guy at this point.

Opening Day is always a great day and to be able to get the W at Wrigley makes it even more special.

We’re excited to get this started! #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/sK9ZFNqdBq

— Derek Shelton (@derekshelton) April 1, 2021

Conclusion: Pirates have a lot to build on

So not all bad, but not all good for the Pirates Opening Series. I would be encouraged by this weekend if not for the Hayes injury. It also appears that Keller will never be what we hoped he would. I also will continue to be the biggest Polanco hater in Pittsburgh. He smiles at the plate the entire at-bat as if he knows he is stealing millions from the organization.

However, the team patience at the plate and the bullpen should allow this team to compete each and every game.

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