With Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jonathon Niese throwing well lately, people wondered whether his good form could continue at the Texas Rangers’ hitter-friendly Globe Life Park.
On Friday night, the answer was a resounding “yes,” as Niese (5-2) allowed just one run on seven hits in six innings of work and helped the Pirates resoundingly beat the Rangers, 9-1.
Lately, Niese has been able to get ground ball outs with more regularity, and this was once again the case Friday — he had 10 ground ball outs in his outing. This isn’t an easy feat to accomplish as, according to MLB Park Factors, Globe Life Park is the second most hitter-friendly MLB ballpark (behind Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies).
“The ground ball outs played… he pounded the zone,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle told Root Sports after the game. Hurdle further praised Niese’s work against a good Texas lineup that includes Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus.
After Niese’s first start in May against the Chicago Cubs, his ERA was 5.94; it’s now down to 4.42. He’ll finish with a 3.87 ERA in the month of May.
“I just had the mentality of taking it one game at a time,” Niese told Root Sports. “When you’re ERA is close to six, you have to take it one game at a time. I’ve never really experienced struggles this early, so I really didn’t know what to do, but I’ve struggled before in my career. You take it one pitch at a time, and it all evens out.”
Offense does its part
Rangers starting pitcher Cole Hamels (5-1) and Niese have one thing in common this season: Each have surrendered a double-digit amount of home runs.
Hamels came into Friday’s game having allowed 10 home runs, and he allowed another two in this game. The first came in the top of the second inning on a 3-1 fastball when Starling Marte hit a solo shot over the center field wall for his fourth homer of the season. The other homer came in the fifth inning off Jung Ho Kang’s bat for Kang’s sixth homer of the season. Kang’s swing scored two of the five runs that crossed the plate that inning. (Kang went 2-for-5 at the plate and now has six consecutive multi-hit games against inter-league opponents.)
Hamels didn’t make it out of the fifth inning.
The Pirates’ powerful offense didn’t go quietly when Hamels was taken out of the game. Andrew McCutchen hit his ninth home run of the season in the sixth inning off Luke Jackson — it was McCutchen’s 1,199th hit of his major league career — and Gregory Polanco hit his seventh home run this season in the ninth inning against Alex Claudio.
Up Next
The Pirates hope to extend their winning streak to six games when they face the Rangers on Saturday night. Pittsburgh’s Juan Nicasio (4-3, 4.46 ERA) will face Texas’ Yu Darvish, who will be making his season debut. Darvish hasn’t pitched since Aug. 9, 2014, and is returning from Tommy John surgery. Nicasio is 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in one career start against the Rangers.
Image credit: Justin Berl/Getty Images
