It was a night to forget for Jeff Locke as the Pittsburgh Pirates fell to the San Francisco Giants by a 6-4 score last night.
Locke surrendered a career-high 11 hits in five innings of work. He missed in location repeatedly early in the game and the Giants made him pay. The most notable hit was a 418-foot home run hit by his mound counterpart, Madison Bumgarner, his fifth of the season.
This afternoon Gerrit Cole [14-7 2.61 ERA] will face Mike Leake [9-6 3.52 ERA].
Cole is 3-0 with a 2.11 ERA in three career starts against the Giants. Earlier this season, Cole defeated the Giants and allowed two unearned runs in seven innings of work. His last start was a 4-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in which he allowed four runs on nine hits in 6.2 innings of work.
Leake will make his first start since August 2. He has been bothered by a hamstring injury. Chris Heston, who threw a no-hitter earlier this year, was sent down to Triple-A to make space for Leake. Leake has a successful history against the Pirates and this season is 2-0 with a 2.18 ERA in three starts. In that August 2 start, Leake took a loss ending a streak in which he had won four consecutive games. He allowed two runs on eight hits in 6.1 innings against the Texas Rangers.
Seventh-inning stretch: Jung Ho Kang’s English lessons have shown significant progress. In the clubhouse prior to today’s game, Kang was speaking in full sentences with manager Clint Hurdle’s son Christian. He also would repeat words back to Christian.
“He continues to get mentored with his weekly English,” Hurdle said. “It’s fantastic what he’s picked up, he’s using complete sentences now and it’s fun to watch that side of him.”
Something else that certainly was not lost in translation was Jung Ho Kang’s slamming of the gum bucket with his batting helmet after he was robbed of a base-hit during a late-game situation against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Unintentionally history repeated itself.
“I know what happened last night was funny,” said Hurdle. “He has a need to swing the bat in the dugout we’re still working with. He put his bat on his shoulder and he hit the gum bucket again, by accident. We were able to revisit the previous incident and told him to let it go.”
Hurdle made it clear following last night’s game that Chris Stewart being in tonight’s lineup is to give Francisco Cervelli a rest day. This is because earlier in the season, many referred to Stewart as Cole’s personal catcher. He wanted Stewart’s role to be clear to everyone.
“We’re going to use him as needed, we’re going to use him as a wildcard,” Hurdle said.
Bottom of the ninth: The Pirates currently hold the second best record in the National League, unfortunately for them, the best record belongs to a fellow National League Central team, the St. Louis Cardinals. This raised the question about the fairness of the second wild card.
“I have a selfish feeling and a feeling of what is better for the game,” said Hurdle. “What that second wild card has done for our game, for cities, for organizations, for revenue is absolutely crazy. I was a part of the first wave when we had the first wild card and I was thinking that it was the dumbest thing we’ve ever done. It was pure genius and there’s no way you can argue that it hasn’t benefitted the game.”
With last night’s win, the Giants have a career record of 21-23 at PNC Park. The Giants have dropped eight of their last 10 games to the Pirates. Jordy Mercer went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in game one of a double-header for the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians in action last night. Corey Hart went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts… A.J. Burnett threw 25 fastballs off a mound two days ago according to Hurdle. He is scheduled to throw a side session today… The Pirates have won eight of their first nine Saturday home games this season.
Photo credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
