Good afternoon from PNC Park where the Pirates (63-55) look to sweep the Pittsburgh portion of a four-game home-and-home series with the Tigers(63-53). Edinson Volquez (9-7, 3.70 ERA) will take the hill and oppose Robbie Ray (1-1, 4.70 ERA).
Player Updates
The Pirates have recalled Brandon Cumpton from AAA Indianapolis and has sent Casey Sadler back to AAA. Cumpton will pitch out of the bullpen.
Neil Walker is unavailable on the bench once again, but manager Clint Hurdle continues to see improvement in his rehab.
“He showed improvement yesterday,” said Hurdle. “Going through the examinations with the doctors again. Anyone that’s had a back challenge, I think we all have different degrees of concern from time to time and then you find out that some things we’re concerned about aren’t in play , it can help the process and I think we’ve been able to isolate what he needs to work on to cover. He was in a better place yesterday and is in a better place today.”
Clint Barmes continues to show improvement with his groin as he will start baseball activity.
“We’ve mapped it out,” said Hurdle. “We’re going to talk to Clint after batting practice today. We are going to send him out tomorrow and it won’t be quite like revisiting spring training, but he has been out six weeks, so the return to play will probably have a few games of multiple innings, maybe a couple 5’s, maybe a couple 7’s. Eventually, we’ll start him in Altoona and then to Indianapolis.”
Hurdle’s Quotes
On Andrew McCutchen going on the DL: “Going in, we had a timeline that we were going to follow. Be respectful of giving Andrew time to work through an injury with not a lot of case history and he’s a significant player for us, so there was a time where we wanted to stretch out what kind of progress we wanted to be made knowing there comes a 10-day period where you can’t retroactive all the days that they are down. Would he be able to play by ten days, eleven days? Start looking risk vs. reward, what he still has to accomplish on his road to recovery. He’s got to face velocity. He’s got to face spin. We just felt it was best suited, he felt it was best suited to make the move.”
On moving Brandon Cumpton to the pen: “Right now, it’s going to be out of the bullpen. I would probably not jump him into high-leverage situations yet because it’s something he doesn’t have much experience doing. Game situations and the way games get played it might force it that way. That’s not something that’s on top of the list. We’re looking for multiple innings first.”
Other Notes
— Pittsburgh leadoff batters have hit safely in each of the last 15 games, going 30-for-65 (.462) with 20 runs, having scored at least one run in 10 straight games. Overall this season the Bucco leadoff hitters have scored a total of 85 runs, ranking second among National League teams behind Milwaukee (88).
— Russell Martin has hit safely in nine straight games (12-for-33, .364) and enters tonight’s action two hits shy of 1000 for his career. Martin also has 10 hits in his last 17 at bats with runners in scoring position and leads all National League players with a .382 average (26-for-68) with RISP this season (min: 90PA).
Tonight’s Pirates Lineup
First pitch is set for 7:05.
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(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
