The Pittsburgh Pirates have had its struggles at the start of Interleague play this season with a 1-4 record. The Pirates now being a four game stretch against the Chicago White Sox with two games at home and two on the road.
Tonight’s starters:
The Pirates will face its second consecutive lefty. They are in the middle of a stretch containing four left-handed starters.
Francisco Liriano is the Pirates pitcher tonight and is 5-4 with a 4.99 ERA in 15 career games [11 starts]. His last start was a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Liriano tied a season high throwing eight innings and allowed three runs on five hits. He pitched with the White Sox in 2012.
Carlos Rodon will start for the White Sox. Rodon was selected third overall in the 2014 MLB Draft. He is the first White Sox rookie to allow either one or no earns runs over six or more innings in at least four straight starts since 1964-65. His last start was a win against the Houston Astros in which he pitched six scoreless innings and allowed four hits. Rodon entered the season rated as the top prospect in the White Sox organization by Baseball America. He also was rated by MLB.com as the second best left-handed pitching prospect.
Pregame thoughts:
Yesterday it was reported that the Pirates signed Kevin Newman and today he was introduced to the media.
“We’ve been following Kevin for a while, our guys fell in love with him last year and hoped he would get to us, never dreamed he would,” Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington said. “We like him as a shortstop because he has the defensive skills to stay at the position, we love the bat and think there is going to be leadership abilities in this young man as he goes through the system.”
Newman will start his professional career with the West Virginia Black Bears of the New York-Penn League.
“It’s an honor and a blessing to be selected by the Pirates and officially be here and be a Pirate,” said Newman. “So many things came together for this to happen.”
The Black Bears will open their season Friday and Huntington told media to expect Newman in the lineup. This Newman, said factored into his decision to sign early.
“I wanted to play as soon as possible and get the extra at-bats, that’s what we all want,” Newman said.
Francisco Cervelli will bat fifth in tonight’s lineup. He has batted second on three occasions however has not batted above sixth otherwise. Cervelli owns a .407 batting average against left-handed pitching. He also has caught 33 consecutive scoreless innings which is the longest streak by a Pirate since Manny Sanguillen accomplished the feat through 38 innings from May 17-23 in 1972.
“The bat, the average against left-handed pitching is the highest on the club so I thought we’d take an opportunity maybe provide a little protection and get him in the middle of things there,” manager Clint Hurdle said.
Vance Worley has been an almost guy as of late. His last outing was June 6, however in each of the walkoff wins this past weekend, Worley would have been the next pitcher to take the mound. That is not saying he is not getting his work in.
“That’s the best we can do right now with the position he’s in,” said Hurdle. “He’s sweating more than anyone else when we’re shaking hands and he didn’t even play in the game.”
Worley has allowed one run in eight innings of work since moving to the bullpen.
Bottom of the ninth:
Hurdle essentially gave reporters a wanted add recently. The desire was simple. There was a need for a left-handed batting practice pitcher. The result?
“I couldn’t get it under the wires and look what happened, I used you guys like bait,” said Hurdle to reporters. “As soon as I let you guys know I needed one, boom he showed up here. I can’t believe how thick headed I was that I didn’t come up with this earlier.”
Former Pirate Chris Peters threw batting practice to the first two groups prior to the start of tonight’s game and he is here to stay.
Peters, 43, from Bethel Park, PA, finished his major league career in 2001. He was 17-21 with a 4.57 ERA in five seasons with the Pirates.
Photo credit: Baseball Tucson
