Good afternoon from PNC Park where the Pirates (8-9) look to get back to .500 tonight against the first place Brewers (12-5). Wandy Rodriguez (0-2, 7.31 ERA) looks for win #1 tonight as he faces Matt Garza (0-2, 3.43 ERA).
Injury Update
Jordy Mercer left yesterdays game after sustaining an ankle injury in the third inning. Manager Clint Hurdle said he would be limited at the most today.
“Jordy showed up today feeling a little bit better,” said Hurdle. “He was going to go through a treatment period and then an activation period to see where that takes him. If it takes him into BP and then into ground balls, we’ll see, but we’re going to play it safe tonight and hopefully he can be able to compete for us later in the game. He’s not going to start, but there was some improvement coming in to today.”
Hurdle’s Quotes
On Ike Davis joining the club — “I told him we believe he’s going to add value to our club, reinforced the fact he doesn’t need to carry our club. We got a great group of young men out there that are ready to embrace him, work with him and challenge him, encourage him. I told him life is about new opportunities. You got to find a way to bring closure to the one that just passed and an awareness and an opening to engage in the one that’s in front of you. He’s got a clean chalkboard here and we’re looking forward to drawing on it together.”
On Davis and Sanchez platooning at 1B — “It’s going to be based on the pitcher’s hand more than anything. Obviously, we acquired Ike as a guy we’ve had our sights on for a while so, we’ve got a lot of right-handed pitching. Obviously, there should be more reps initially for him to get going and I’ve had a nice personal conversation with Gaby on how his games could fall his way. That was the hard part, that Gaby got to the point where there was going to be a window of opportunity and we put a screen over the window for him. You just have to communicate and be honest and you have to share what you believe in and how he can continue to help and be the best player he can be.”
On Chris Stewart — “He did his work, did his yard work, did his practice work, his game work, caught back-to-back days, up-and-down’s, throwing to bases, getting on base, running bases. He’s fit for duty.”
Other Notes
— In his last 11 starts at PNC Park (dating back to 8/29/12), Wandy Rodriguez has gone 6-3 with a 2.36 ERA (68 2/3 IN/18 ER). He has been charged with three earned runs or less in 10 of the 11 assignments.
— Overall this season, the Bucs have scored 38 of their 71 runs in the seventh inning or later (54%) and have out-scored their opponent 38-12 in that time.
Tonight’s Pirates Lineup
First pitch is set for 7:05.
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(Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
