MLB
Pirates Finish April With A 13-14 Record
Month of April
The Pirates finished April standing in the fourth spot of the NL Central division five games behind the Cardinals. April wasn’t so bad for the Pirates as from April 18th to 22nd they sat atop the NL Central standings and posted baseball’s best record at one point with a record of 12-6 and a .667 winning percentage.
Starting Pitching
The Pirates starting rotation hasn’t been stellar but it has been good. The starting staff had a record of 6-8 in the first month of the season. It should’ve been better if the bullpen would’ve held up their end of the bargain and the offense come around during some games. The starters have combined to pitch 142.1 innings. Joe Musgrove leads the staff with 33 innings pitched. The starters have struck out 122 batters combined and Joe Musgrove leads the staff again with 30. Furthermore, Jordan Lyles leads the way with two wins and Archer, Musgrove and Taillon each have two losses. Furthermore, the starters as a whole have a 3.10 ERA and Musgrove has the lowest ERA with a 1.64 ERA. Both Williams and Archer ERA are north of 4.00.
When it comes to strikeouts per 9 innings, Chris Archer leads the pack with 9.67 and when it comes to walks per 9 innings, Jameson Taillon leads with 1.44 walks per 9 innings.
Relief Pitching
Closer Felipe Vazquez has the lowest ERA among Pirate relievers. Give granted Vazquez is a closer, Vazquez has come into some jams that he has had to get out of and earn the save. In fact, Vazquez has seven saves in the month of April. On the other hand, there have been pitchers out of the bullpen who haven’t lived up to the hype quite yet. Keone Kela is one of those pitchers. In 12 appearances in April, Kela’s ERA was 4.76 and there were numerous times when he came out of the bullpen and quite simply didn’t have it. Kela also had four save opportunities and gave up six earned runs, and batters were hitting .227 off of him.
Offense
This category came at no surprise for Pirates fans. Though two players stood out in the month of April and those players were both Josh Bell and Melky Cabrera. Josh Bell in the month of April appeared in 25 games and hit .289 with six home runs, 20 RBIs and 11 walks. Bell also had 25 strikeouts and 26 hits. For Melky Cabrera, he appeared in 24 games and hit a surprising .338 average. Besides that, Cabrera had three home runs, seven RBIs and three walks. Cabrera is worth noting considering his age and role with the team (not a primary starter).
Conclusion
Being in first place for some time along with having MLB’s best record at one point was surprising. The Pirates also played in a good bit of divisional games too. May may or may not be a replica of April. Though, there is still plenty of baseball season left to play.
Photo Credit to Pirates via Twitter
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