The Pirates (77 -56) look to get back into a tie for first place in the NL Central as they take on the Cardinals (78 – 55) to start a 3-game series tonight. Francisco Liriano (14 – 6, 2.74 ERA) will face Shelby Miller (12 – 8, 2.90 ERA).
Leading Off
Rob Biertempfel of the Trib is reporting that Casey Sadler, promoted to Class AAA Indy today, will start in Kris Johnson’s place tonight. This means Johnson could be the spot-starter on Sunday in the series finale against the Cardinals.
Hurdle’s Quotes
On setting the rotation to have you’re best out against the Cardinals — “There’s certain times during the season where you can adjust some things and we had an opportunity to make that adjustment a couple weeks ago to get this lined up we felt the way that the most competitive for us.”
On the importance of this series — “I give my guys a lot more credit than some people do in the street and I think they’re good with math. They understand the calendar is getting ready to flip. We’re in second place, we’re a game behind the team that we’re playing, so it’s pretty much all laid out for you. Tonight we’ll play, we’ll be in a different situation in one way or another tomorrow. That’s what we’ve done all year, that’s when we’ve been at our best so, we do have 29 games to play, but we start with tonight’s game. We play tonight to see what happens next. ”
On being surprised about Cutch having a better Aug. than the previous two — “I love surprises, so for McCutchen to have the month of August after the months that we’ve had the past two years, I love it. I mean, he’s continually trying to find ways to improve and challenge himself and he knew where he stood coming out of the last two years coming out of the second half of the season. Surprised because I like seeing guys meeting challenges, I like seeing guys digging down deep and getting out of their comfort zone and doing things they haven’t been able to do before, I applaud that.”
Other Notes
— The Pirates have gone 5 – 2 against the Cardinals at PNC Park this season and have won seven of the last nine games played here in Pittsburgh dating back to last August. In those nine games, the Bucco pitching staff has posted four shutouts and a 2.39 ERA (83 IN/ 30 R/ 22 ER) despite giving up 13 runs in the last meeting on 8/1 and 10 runs on 4/15. The Bucs are batting .291 (87-for-299) and have scored 47 runs in the nine games.
— In the 13 games these two teams have met, the Pirates have hit 15 home runs while giving up just three (all three came at Busch Stadium on 4/26). In the last nine games played at PNC, the Bucco pitching staff has not given up a home run to St. Louis (83 IN).
First pitch is set for 7:05
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(Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
