Good afternoon from PNC Park where today the Pirates (34-36) look to rebound from last night’s tough loss to the Reds (34-35) in the second game of the four-game set. Edinson Volquez (4-5, 3.89 ERA) will oppose Alfredo Simon (9-3, 2.95 ERA).
DL Update
— Gerrit Cole threw a simulated game today in which he threw one simulated inning from behind the L-screen and four innings and 60 pitches regular.
“From what I saw, he is in a good place,” said manager Clint Hurdle
Neil Walker was one of the batters facing Cole in the sim game.
Hurdle’s Quotes
On finding Josh Harrison a spot in the lineup once Walker is off the DL: “We need to find playing time right now for Josh. He’s been playing tremendous baseball. He’s added an edge for us at the plate, on the field, on the bases. His enthusiasm and energy, I do think, drips on to the other guys as well, so when guys are playing well, you continue to find opportunities to get them out there and he’s one of those guys right now that is just playing as good of ball that he’s been playing at any level.”
On the team’s baserunning errors: “You try and coach up. You don’t want to give away outs on the base paths. When they happen, you get back with a player and ask ‘what did you see?’ ‘what did you feel?’ then we take them to the video and show them the reality of it because sometimes their perception of what they were feeling or seeing, when they see it from a different angle, they’re like ‘oh, okay’. You just try to learn from the experience. Mistakes get made and you don’t like to see repetitive mistakes of the same nature.”
Other Notes
— Since returning from the D.L. on 5/23, Russell Martin has reached base safely in all 18 of his starts. He enters tonight’s game with a seven-game hitting streak (9-for-25, .360) and he is hitting .400 (12-for-30) in his last nine games.
— Over the last three years, Andrew McCutchen leads all National League players with a .356 (94-for-264) average during the month of June. He is batting .421 (24-for-57) in 14 games this June and owns a career average of .327 (184-for-562) in June — his highest mark for any month.
Tonight’s Pirates Lineup
First pitch is set for 7:05.
Follow @TBerardi_OVA
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
