The Pittsburgh Pirates conclude their second home stand of the season with a three game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, which begins tonight.
In last night’s game, the Pirates ended a five game losing streak with a 7-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates recorded 11 hits and all eight position players successfully reached base. A.J. Burnett earned his first victory of the season and also struck out his 2400th career batter.
“It’s nice to get a win for sure,” Mercer said. “We felt like we’ve been right on the cusp a few times now and even in St. Louis we were able to get a lot of hits but just couldn’t bring runs across the plate. Last night we felt like we had a little bit of both.”
Tonight’s starters:
In tonight’s game, the Pirates will send Francisco Liriano [1-1 1.95 ERA] to face Michael Wacha [4-0 1.93 ERA]. In Liriano’s last start, which also was against the Cardinals, he pitched eight innings, allowing one run on three hits. Liriano received a no-decision and threw 98 pitches in the outing. Against the Cardinals, the left-handed starter is 4-1 with a 1.86 ERA in nine career starts. In 2014, Liriano was 0-1 with a 3.32 ERA in four starts versus the Cardinals. Since Aug. 25, 2014, Liriano has a 1.53 ERA which represents the lowest total among National League starters that have pitched 75 innings.
Wacha is pitching in his 40th career game tonight and has won his first four starts of the season. Wacha’s 1.93 ERA ranks fourth in the National League. Wacha had a no-decision in his last start, which was against the Pirates. Wacha pitched 6.2 shutout innings, giving up five hits. Fans may remember Wacha faced the Pirates in the 2013 NLDS and threw 7.1 innings in a 2-1 Game 4 win.
Pregame thoughts:
In last night’s game, the Pirates had four stolen base attempts and were successful on three occasions. In the past, stealing off Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was not a high percentage play, however that has changed this season. The Pirates were 2-for-2 stealing against him in last weekend’s series.
“I think he’s playing through some things and he’s lost some weight to try and play in better shape,” Hurdle said. “The fact that they’ve run 10 times and stolen seven in a number you’ve never read by his name ever. We’re going to go ahead and look for some shots. We do believe we’ve had a better window of opportunity in the past.”
During his pregame press conference, Hurdle said that the game of baseball can change on a dime. During the last home stand, reporters were asking him, as well as general manager Neal Huntington, if it would be beneficial for Jung-ho Kang to be demoted to Triple-A Indianapolis so that he could get more plate appearances and improve.
This month, Kang is a .333 hitter at the plate. When he left Pittsburgh with the team following the first home stand, Kang was a .200 hitter but since then he has improved his average to .289. Now Hurdle is being questioned about why Kang is being benched for a second consecutive game.
“I like to play the hot hand, but I also want to try and make sure I’m tied to the guys we’re tied to,” said Hurdle. “Jung-ho’s in a very good place and we’re going to get him back in the lineup. He’s doing things that he’s never had to do before. We’re trying to grow him to play more and handle more opportunities.”
Bottom of the ninth:
Hurdle revisited last weekend’s series against the Cardinals, all extra inning losses and provided an analogy to reporters which revealed his assessment of the team.
“I told the people after the three games [in St. Louis] that I’ve always had World Cup soccer on my bucket list and little did I know I spent a weekend in St. Louis watching it,” Hurdle said. “We took the best team in baseball extra innings three straight time to beat us one run each time.”
Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto was fined and suspended one game for bumping into umpire Chris Conroy during Wednesday’s contest against the Pirates. Votto did not appeal and will not play in tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox.
Photo courtesy: Gene J. Puskar/AP
