This was my first chance seeing Taillon in person, as I spent most of the evening sitting behind the backstop in Altoona. His command was very good, as he pounded the zone with quality strikes all night. Of his 69 pitches, 48 went for strikes. He threw 10 pitches in the first, 11 in the second, 10 in the third, 10 in the fourth, 13 in the fifth and 15 in the sixth. He mostly worked ahead in the count, causing it to stick out the few times he fell behind on a hitter. It was simply an easy evening for the big right-hander, who never faced any type of trouble.

Taillon’s fastball mostly sat in the mid 90’s, with some pitches dropping into the low 90’s. He got plenty of swings-and-misses with the heater, with only a few hitters making solid contact. He commanded the pitch well, doing a particularly good job of keeping it down in the zone.

The curveball was on for Taillon tonight, as opposing hitters struggled with it all night. Three of his strikeouts came on swinging curves, with two others going down looking at the hook. I did not have the best angle from where I was sitting to pick up the break on the pitch, but it clearly fooled hitters throughout the evening. He commanded the curve well, very rarely missing his target.

I was very interested to get a look at Taillon’s developing changeup. He did not throw very many, so I only got a limited view of the pitch. The few changeups he threw were inconsistent, and I don’t think I saw an opposing hitter offer at any of the off-speed pitches. Taillon threw one early on that looked very nice, painting the outside corner at the knees against a lefty. He mixed in a few more throughout the game, but did not command them very well. He mostly missed on the arm-side and up, with at least one or two bouncing in the dirt. He certainly appears to have some more work to do on commanding the change.

Taillon finished the night with a bang, striking out the final five batters he faced. With two outs in the sixth, he faced one of the Giants’ top prospects in Gary Brown. Taillon fell behind 2-0 to Brown, before battling back to even the count. With his final pitch of the night, Taillon froze Brown with a curve that painted the inside corner. Frustrated, Brown briefly barked at the umpire on his way back to the dugout. Taillon calmly walked off the field, most likely finishing his night without ever breaking a sweat.

In the bottom of the eighth, with the Bucs trailing 4-3 and facing one last chance to tie the game, Clint Hurdle sent Chad Qualls to the mound. Qualls entered the game with a 5.28 ERA on the season. After warming up alongside Qualls the previous inning, Jason Grilli and his 2.38 ERA watched from the bullpen. Qualls quickly allowed a leadoff double to Will Venable, who then moved to third on a ground out. The situation screamed for a strikeout, but Hurdle stuck with Qualls. Qualls has struck out 12.1% of the batters he has faced this year, while Grilli has struck out 38.5% of opposing hitters. Carlos Quentin lifted a fly ball to left and the Padres extended their lead to 5-3.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, with the score tied and the Padres’ 2-3-4 hitters due up, Hurdle went with the recently recalled Daniel McCutchen while closer Joel Hanrahan watched from the bullpen. Venable walked, stole second and came around on Headley’s game-winning blast.

In both of these situations, Hurdle went with an inferior pitcher while better options were available in the bullpen. This led me to research something I had been wanting to research for weeks. Here is Hurdle’s usage of Grilli and Hanrahan this season, based on the score of the game when each pitcher took the mound.

Jason Grilli

Joel Hanrahan

I have spent much of this season trying not to criticize major league managers each time they make a pitching change. I have told myself time and time again that they are working with far more information than I am (see this excellent article written by Russell Carleton). However, this is a disturbing trend. It is pretty clear that Hurdle only feels comfortable using his two best relievers when the Pirates are winning, even when they are leading by a comfortable margin. In total, 78 of their 100 appearances have come while the Pirates were leading. Far too many of those have come with the Pirates ahead by three or more runs, while both pitchers have become merely afterthoughts when the score is tied or the Pirates trail by a run or two. Those are very important innings that are being pitched by lesser relievers.

The Pirates are not using their bullpen efficiently, and the issue is becoming more glaring the deeper the team gets into a pennant race.

Wandy Rodriguez

Rodriguez throws his fastball in the 88-90 MPH range, maxing out around 91 MPH. He moves the four-seamer all around the zone, while mostly using the two-seamer on the outer half. He frequently goes to his spike curveball, which sits around 75-77 MPH and generally shows good downward break. Rodriguez also throws an 83-84 MPH circle change, which he uses to keep right-handed batters honest. He does not miss many bats with his secondary offerings, but his fastball is difficult to put in play despite the underwhelming velocity. Rodriguez generally gets a good number of his ground balls on the curve, and the change has also generated a lot of grounders in 2012. His strikeout rate is down pretty significantly in 2012, after consistently sitting well above average the past several years. His walk rate has also dropped dramatically this season.

I was not disappointed in the first inning. With two on and nobody out, McCutchen stroked an 0-1 pitch into left field to bring home a run and give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

However, in the 3rd inning, I had the opportunity to witness the event I had daydreamed about witnessing. McCutchen stepped in with Josh Harrison at first and one out. He patiently watched the first three pitches, taking a curveball for a strike and then two pitches outside the zone. With the count sitting at 2-1, Zito hurled his trademark curveball. I was sitting about 400-500 feet from home plate, but as the baseball floated toward its destination, I knew immediately what was about to occur. I sat forward ever so slightly in my seat as the ball arrived at home plate. McCutchen paused his body’s movements for a split-second as he recognized an off-speed pitch, then, in an instant, attacked.

I tracked the ball as it rocketed out toward the left-center field gap, thoroughly enjoying the perfectly placed line drive. After a few seconds, it settled into the deepest part of the ballpark.

At this point, I suddenly realized that I was about to miss the best part of this moment and quickly turned my gaze back toward the infield. McCutchen had just touched first base and was quickly transitioning to a special level of athletic performance. I cannot think of anything in baseball that is currently more enjoyable to watch than Andrew McCutchen legging out a triple. The way he goes from first to third is so aesthetically pleasing, so perfect. Its beauty simply cannot be captured by a low-grade, 12-second GIF file. (You can watch video of it at the 0:50 mark here.)

I went to the ballpark on this evening in hopes of seeing the Pirates’ superstar do something special. He did not hit a walk-off home run or make a spectacular catch in center field. All he did was go 3 for 5 with two RBI’s, and leave me with a little moment that I will not soon forget. He did not disappoint.

The following inning, after homering to put the game out of reach, Andrew McCutchen made a fabulous play to run down a gap shot off the bat of Hector Luna.

Garrett Jones

Westbrook rotated his hips, lifted his left leg toward his chest, stepped forward and fired his best sinker. The baseball left his hand at 91 MPH and hurtled toward the catcher’s mitt. Jones lifted his right foot slightly, stepped toward the plate and prepared to meet the white leather sphere with his formidable bat. As the ball approached the plate, it suddenly plummeted into the dirt. In an instant, Jones halted his swing and looked on as the ball skipped into Cruz’ big catcher’s glove. Jones flipped his bat toward the Pirates dugout and jogged to first base. One pitch later, Clint Barmes flew out to center field and the inning was over.

This occurred on May 3. It was only Jones’ third walk of the season. He did not reach via base on balls for a fourth time until this past Saturday. He also was intentionally walked on Sunday. In the past 45 days, Jones has one unintentional walk in 98 plate appearances. He has walked unintentionally only four times in 161 total plate appearances on the season.

This is not typical for Jones. Here are his unintentional walk rates during his time with the Pirates.

Jones has been swinging much more often this season than in the past, at pitches both in the zone and outside it. Anecdotally, I feel like I see him waving at a pitch in the dirt at least once or twice per game. Here are his plate discipline stats (PITCHf/x version) from FanGraphs. (Note: These numbers are current through Saturday’s games.)

Jones is currently producing his best batting average and power numbers since his surprisingly dominant arrival in Pittsburgh in 2009. However, his extreme lack of patience has left him with an awful .273 on-base percentage, and is dramatically hurting his overall value at the plate.

By my count, there are something like 17 pitches here that were clearly outside the strike zone, and several more were somewhat borderline pitches that most likely would not have been called strikes. What are the Pirates swinging at?

Data courtesy of Brooks Baseball.