The Pittsburgh Pirates will play its second game in a six game home stand tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds won Tuesday’s game with a 7-1 victory.
Marlon Byrd was 2-5 on the day with four RBI and his fourth home run of the season. Todd Frazier hit his National League leading ninth homer as part of a two-run second inning. Michael Lorenzen picked up the first win of his major league career with the only damage being a solo home run from Starling Marte, his seventh of the season.
Tonight’s starters:
Tonight’s pitching match-up will feature Pirates right-handed starter and National League Pitcher of the Month Gerrit Cole [4-0 1.76 ERA] taking on Mike Leake [1-1 3.03 ERA].
Cole will be making his sixth start of the season tonight and is coming off an 8-1 win this past Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs allowing one run [unearned] and three hits in six innings of work. He also struck out eight batters in the game. In his past two starts, Cole has allowed one earned run. He is 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA in three career starts against the Reds. Cole made a start against the Reds earlier this season and received a no-decision after allowing three runs in five innings.
Leake won his first game of the season Thursday in a road game against the Atlanta Braves. Leake pitched eight shutout innings in which he allowed two hits. In his career against the Pirates Leake is 6-3 with a 3.28 ERA, however at PNC Park he is 1-3 with a 2.86 ERA. The Reds are 9-12 in Leake’s 21 career starts and have won two of Leake’s 10 starts at PNC Park. As a team the Pirates hit .256 against Leake. Josh Harrison is a .333 hitter [6-for-18] against Leake.
Pregame thoughts:
The Pirates have called up Steve Lombardozzi from Triple-A Indianapolis, while sending Andrew Lambo to the disabled list [retroactive to May 4] with plantar fasciitis.
Prior to the call-up, Lombardozzi was second on the team with a .379 batting average and a .943 OPS. Lombardozzi also had 33 hits and 13 RBI.
“He’s got major league experience and defensive versatility,” Hurdle said of Lombardozzi. “His at-bats have been very good from both sides. We’re looking for him to supplement and add off the bench. I do think he is the right guy to call up to give us that left-handed bat earlier in the game that can give you a good at-bat but still beat somebody.”
Lambo is batting .040 on the season with one hit in 25 at-bats. Lambo’s lone hit was on Apr. 23 against the Chicago Cubs.
“We just felt it was best to treat it as early as possible so we could have a healthy and productive season,” Lambo said. “It dates back to the middle of March and didn’t feel like it was affecting play but as we continued on it didn’t get any better. Towards the end we felt like it was dictating some of the at-bats.”
Hurdle was also asked about Andrew McCutchen’s remarks to media members following last night’s game in regards to his struggles. McCutchen took much of the blame for the team’s struggles upon himself something Hurdle said was not a surprise to him.
“I think he may have gotten to a time where he just needed to get out what he needed to get out and hopefully answer some of the questions other people have about him and in his own way lighten the load on the other guys,” said Hurdle.
Tonight’s lineups:
Pirates [12-14]
1. Gregory Polanco RF
2. Neil Walker 2B
3. Andrew McCutchen CF
4. Starling Marte LF
5. Pedro Alvarez 1B
6. Jung-ho Kang SS
7. Josh Harrison 3B
8. Francisco Cervelli C
9. Gerrit Cole P
Reds [13-13]
1. Billy Hamilton CF
2. Marlon Byrd LF
3. Joey Votto 1B
4. Todd Frazier 3B
5. Brandon Phillips 2B
6. Jay Bruce RF
7. Kristopher Negron SS
8. Tucker Barnhart C
9. Mike Leake P
Bottom of the ninth:
Prior to coming to America as a part of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jung-ho Kang was quoted as saying that he wanted to play Aroldis Chapman and expressed how much of a test it would be. The two got a chance to square off and Kang was able to work a full count walk.
“He managed the at-bat very well,” Hurdle said. “[Kang’s] a guy that can be a free swinger, he laid off up and took some swings. He’s never seen 102 [miles-per-hour] before so that was a new experience for him and he handled the at-bat very professionally.”
Hurdle placed Neil Walker as the second batter in the team’s starting lineup citing it was a place he had been before. Harrison was placed seventh with Hurdle citing the decision as a new challenge and opportunity.
