The Pirates (76 – 54) return to PNC to begin the second-to-last homestand of the season as they take on the Milwaukee Brewers (57 – 73). Jeff Locke (9 – 4, 3.01 ERA) will look to get back to pre-all-star break form as he faces Kyle Lohse (9 – 8, 3.22 ERA).
Leading off
Today, the Pirates traded Dilson Herrera and a player to be named later to the Mets for Marlon Byrd and John Buck, the two should be in Pittsburgh for tomorrow’s game.
Neal Huntington’s Quotes
On the Trade — “We’ve been looking to add to the offense, obviously, at the trade deadline. A little disappointed we weren’t able to, but we felt like the cost wasn’t cheap, we felt like it was appropriate for the addition and our goal is to push this club forward. Our goal is to put this club in position to play games deep into October and not just to get there. We felt like the addition of Marlon Byrd and the depth of the catching of John Buck allow us a better step forward to do it.”
On Byrd — “In our minds, Marlon Byrd upgrades our offense right now. He’s having a very good year, he’s a veteran player, he’s been around and is respected within the clubhouse’s and most importantly, he’s made us better.”
“We want him to come in and get adjusted and ideally perform for us the way he has with the Mets this year. With Marte’s injury and a couple guys struggling, we felt like this was a good addition to the club. We’re not looking for him to be the savior, but we’re looking for him to be better in that spot than we have been doing so far.”
“He was one of the guys that we targeted at the end of July and just weren’t able to come to an agreement at that point in time and, again, a guy that’s having a terrific year, a quality veteran player that adds to our clubhouse as well as our lineup
On Buck — “It’s important for us to have three catchers we feel very good about. We love Tony Sanchez, Russ Martin has done everything we have asked from him and more, but we’re one injury away from being a little shallow and we went and, no slight intended on Kelly Shoppach, we went and got Kelly Shoppach as our third guy for us in September. We feel John Buck is a better acquisition and how it plays out as we go through the month of September and into October and time will tell.”
On Starling Marte — “He saw our doctors here in Pittsburgh yesterday. Saw Dr. Tom Graham in Cleveland this morning. Basically, it’s a contusion with some inflammation. A sprain that needs to heal, needs time to get the swelling out of there, needs time to let that sprain heal. He’s going to be out at least the two weeks of the disabled list assignment. It’s all going to be contingent upon how quickly that swelling gets out, but we’re optimistic that Starling gets back out there this season. Right now, the swelling and the pain are such that he can’t grip a bat, there’s no real efficient timetable for us until we get that swelling out of there.”
Hurdle on Locke
“I see him meeting the challenges mentally. I’ve seena guy that’s got as much self-confidence you would hope a man would have going through what he’s going through because there’s times when it’s hard to be confident. It’s more than just saying the right things, because I’ve been around kids and young men who have said the right things…and they probably rang hollow internally. But Jeff knows what’s at stake, he’s as glued to this team as anybody, he doesn’t want to go out there unless he’s the best option, and the thing we talked about physically he said ‘physically, I’m where I need to be, I’m probably right where I should be based on the innings and everything I’ve done, I can’t use that as an excuse, not that I’m looking for one.'”
“The back, the only thing I draw upon is that he did have to get away from his weight training for awhile with the back problem. And that’s not to say that’s the excuse, but I know his routine changed dramatically around the All-Star Break and we’re trying to re-create the routine. I think we’ve got some traction that might help, he’s pitching behind A.J. this time and there was some success before that, maybe you can go out and fire out a good one like we’ve seen him do before.”
First Pitch is set for 7:05
For Pirates news and in-game updates, Follow Travis on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @Theyinzer
(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
