Good afternoon from PNC Park where the Pirates (69-64) continue their streak against NL Central opponents as they begin a three-game series with the Reds (65-69). Edinson Volquez (11-7, 3.56 ERA) will take the hill against Mike Leake (10-11, 3.51 ERA).
Injury Update
Pedro Alvarez and Travis Snider are not in the lineup again tonight. They will both work out during warm ups and take swings in the cage to see if they will be available for tonight’s game.
Snider sees progress in his recovery.
“Today was better than yesterday,” said Snider. “I’m walking better, swung the bat a little bit and we’ll see how the rest of the baseball activities respond and go from there.”
Charlie Morton threw a rehab start last night in Altoona throwing four innings while allowing four hits and two earned runs while walking one and striking out six.
“[Charlie got to the pitch count of 73 rather than 75 in four complete innings,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “He felt like he was able to execute pitches. He didn’t feel significantly better than the last time he took the ball, so we’re going to take his feedback and then we can decide what step is next.”
Hurdle’s Quotes
On the starters recent success in going deep into games: “You’re always looking for length out of your starters where you can use your bullpen when you want to, not when you have to. The last series was such a nice injection for us. I mean, you go and play the Cardinals, a tradition-rich organization, you always think pitching. We were able to go step for step with them out of the starting slot and just let our guys get to the bullpen when it was appropriate. All three starters took the ball and did real good work. Real quality work. They kept the ball down, changed speeds. We stayed out of the heart of the plate. We didn’t let things steamroll on us. They did a fine job of just controlling the tempo of the game from the mound.”
Other Notes
— The Pirates have homered at least once in each of their last six games, hitting a total of 12 home runs in that time. The Bucs are 44-32 when homering this season and 23-9 when hitting two or more in a game. Bucco batters have gone deep 16 times in 13 games against Cincinnati so far this season.
— Russell Martin ranks first among Major League catchers in OBP (.421), second in batting (.300) and sixth in RBI (51). He also has 17 hits in his last 35 at bats with runners in scoring position. In addition, Martin currently leads the league in fielding percentage (.997), having made just two errors in 673 chances, and is tied for second with 21 caught stealings.
— Ike Davis connected for his third pinch-hit home run of the season (tied for the Major League lead) and the seventh of the year for the Pirates Tuesday night, matching last year’s club total. The Pittsburgh club record for most pinch-hit homers is 10, set in 1966 and matched in 2001. The Pirates also lead all Major League teams in pinch hits (50) and RBI (38).
Tonight’s Lineups
First pitch is set for 7:05.
Follow @TBerardi_OVA
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
