Good afternoon from PNC Park where tonight the Pirates (18-25) face the Orioles (22-20) in the first of a two-game interleague set. Francisco Liriano (0-3, 4.25 ERA) will look to build off of his last start as he faces Miguel Gonzalez (1-3, 4.76 ERA).
Injury Update
— Jason Grilli threw the first of two simulated games on back-to-back days today and the results were positive.
“It was another good day for him to go and throw all of his pitches,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “20 off the mound with intent. The challenge now will be for him to get out there again tomorrow on back-to-back days and see how the fastball command shows up and how sharp the breaking ball is and those kind of things.”
— Russell Martin is also progressing well as he stood in during Grilli’s sim game.
“Russell is feeling very, very good,” said Hurdle. “He’s shown the ability to swing the bat. He actually fired a check-swing off today and held his ground and didn’t feel anything, that’s encouraging. He’s ramped up the running portion of it to as aggressive as he’s been with it.”
Martin will take the next step in his rehab by catching Grilli’s sim game tomorrow afternoon.
— Stolmy Pimentel threw a bullpen yesterday and will stay in Pittsburgh to throw one more before heading out for his rehab outings.
Hurdle’s Quotes
On his evaluation of the first quarter of the season: “We’ve got 120 games left and it needs to start today. We’ve talked throughout the season from opening day to now about our overall consistency and there’s a point in time where you can’t think that it’s early. You can’t say it’s early anymore. We’ve got to find ways to execute at a championship level and be more consistent across the board. It starts tonight.”
On the team’s plate approach as of late: ” We’ve had a much better May. We set the bar, really, too low for ourselves in April, but we’ve had a much better May and I think our on base percentage was leading in the NL in May. All we have is now. You can’t go back and redo whats been done. The awareness has been heightened, we’ve continued to remind them of the things that need to be taken care of during the at bat. There comes a point in time where as players, you can’t worry about getting right. You’ve got to go out and help your team win the game and those are the things we continue to talk about.”
Tonight’s Pirates Lineup
First pitch is set for 7:05.
(Photo Credit:Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
