After clinching the NL East on Saturday night, it'll be a quick turnaround for the Washington Nationals who face the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon to determine who wins this late-season series. Tyler Glasnow (0-1, 4.11 ERA) will start today's game for the Pirates as Steven Brault, who was scheduled to toe the rubber, will have his turn in the rotation skipped. Brault will be available as a bullpen option, but manager Clint Hurdle wanted to give Glasnow another chance to start before ... Read More
Pirates’ defensive miscues helps Nationals clinch NL East
When Washington Nationals president of baseball operations and general manager Mike Rizzo hired Dusty Baker as the team's manager, fans were unsure of what to think. Baker had been out of baseball for two seasons and was tasked with getting a team considered a National League favorite back into the playoffs after a surprise absence in 2015. After Saturday night's 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates — and with a little help from a 10-7 Philadelphia Phillies victory over the New York ... Read More
Pirates pregame: Pirates continue playoff push
After an 11-inning 6-5 victory Friday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates will host the second contest in a three-game series against the Washington Nationals. Ivan Nova (12-7, 4.19 ERA) will face the Nationals' Joe Ross (7-5, 3.48 ERA) in tonight's pitching match-up. Nova is coming off his worst start as a Pirate in which he pitched all of three innings allowing five runs on 10 hits against the Cincinnati Reds. PNC Park has treated Nova well as he is 3-0 with a 2.03 ERA in four total starts. He ... Read More
Stallings’ 11th-inning hit propels Pirates over Nationals
Jacob Stallings has been a known commodity among Pittsburgh fans because his father Kevin Stallings coaches the Pitt Panthers men's basketball team, but Friday night he was able to provide a more formal introduction where it was his bat that did the talking. With each remaining game turning into essentially a must-win scenario to keep any very, very slim playoff hopes alive, the Pirates returned to PNC Park following an 11-game road trip and beat the Washington Nationals 6-5 in 11 innings ... Read More
Pirates can’t sweep Brewers in 3-1 loss
All that separates the Pittsburgh Pirates from the end of regular season play is 10 games. And those 10 games are against teams that currently project as playoff teams — the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs concluding the home portion of the regular season-schedule and the St. Louis Cardinals on the road. So it would have been nice to get ‘W’ against a team that's 69-84. But the Pirates couldn't secure a second consecutive road sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, with Pittsburgh falling 3-1 ... Read More
Kuhl, McCutchen, Rodriguez shine in Pirates win
For a good while, the narrative when the Pittsburgh Pirates visited Miller Park was a losing one — the Pirates had struggled in Milwaukee. After Wednesday night's 4-1 Pirates victory against the Milwaukee Brewers, things have changed. Now, the Pirates have won six consecutive meetings between these two teams at Miller Park. The last time the Pirates won six in a row at Miller Park occurred in 2002. Pittsburgh starting pitcher Chad Kuhl (5-3) pitched six innings of one-run baseball, ... Read More
Pirates can’t secure four-game sweep of Reds
Pitcher Ivan Nova entered Sunday's game with a 5-0 record as a Pittsburgh Pirate, but after a 7-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, an ‘L’ was placed next to his name for the first time since July 29 with the New York Yankees. Not only did Nova lose, the Pirates missed out on a chance to earn a second consecutive four-game road series sweep. Just 10 days prior, Nova (12-7) fired a complete game one-run shutout, but, Sunday, the former New York Yankee made it through just three innings and tied ... Read More
Pirates sweep doubleheader
Taking both games of a doubleheader is a tough feat to accomplish, but with 10-4 and 7-3 wins, the Pittsburgh Pirates did so over the Cincinnati Reds. These two victories bring the Pirates to 74-74 and put them on a four-game winning streak. The Pirates never trailed in either game and, Sunday, will be going for their seventh series sweep and second consecutive four-game road series sweep of the season. The other came Aug. 25-28 against the Milwaukee Brewers. In Game 1, the Pirates ... Read More
Pirates win in Cincinnati in extra innings
It took extra innings, but the Pittsburgh Pirates took the first of a three-game road series by a 9-7 score Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds. The game was tied at six heading into the 10th inning, when the Reds brought in closer Tony Cingrani. A total of eight Pirates batters would step up to face him. Cingrani (2-5) started the inning with a four-pitch walk to Jung Ho Kang, which was followed by a Sean Rodriguez single and a Francisco Cervelli bunt single that was upheld after a ... Read More
Takeaways from Thursday’s 15-2 Pirates victory
The Pittsburgh Pirates had their way with the Philadelphia Phillies in a 15-2 routing Thursday night that secured a series split. Those 15 runs are a season-high and place the Pirates at 71-74 on the season with 17 regular-season games remaining. Here are my three takeaways from the game: 1. Offense finally shows up The Pirates offense has disappointed for most, if not all, of the second half of the 2016 season, but Thursday night felt as though a “help wanted” ad was finally ... Read More