The Pittsburgh Pirates hope to continue its momentum from yesterday’s 3-2 bottom of the ninth victory against the San Francisco Giants.
Yesterday’s win marked the second time that the Pirates won a game by scoring at least three runs, each on a solo home run. The other one came in 1949.
Tonight, Francisco Liriano [8-6 3.35 ERA] will face Ryan Vogelsong [9-8 3.93 ERA].
Liriano is 3-1 with a 3.75 ERA in four career starts against the Giants. He won a 5-2 decision earlier this season allowing a run on four hits in seven innings. Liriano also went seven innings in his last start which was against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He earned a no-decision and allowed five runs on six hits.
Vogelsong, is 2-4 with a 3.55 ERA in six career games against his former team. Vogelsong has won his past two starts includes six shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in his last start.
Mercer back: Manager Clint Hurdle stated that Jordy Mercer was expected to be back at some point this series. Though a potential rain delay complicated things, he was back today.
“This is a tight-knit group as you know,” Mercer said. “It’s just good to be back with my second family.”
Mercer missed 30 games with a left knee MCL sprain and the Pirates were 20-10 during that time. He will wear a Neoprine brace to help support the knee.
He is pleased with the improvement in his lateral movement and liked how it responded when he had to make defensive plays in the hole.
It is clear that Mercer knows his role after a discussion with Hurdle.
“He said he didn’t want to throw me in right away but he wants me to work my way back into the lineup and help this team win,” said Mercer. “That’s all you can ask for.”
To make room on the roster for Mercer, Travis Ishikawa was placed on the disabled list with a low back strain.
“It’s a situation Travis has worked through for a while without complication,” Hurdle said. “He wasn’t available last night and he’s in the same place today. He’s been getting it treated since we’ve had him. It was before he got here but he’s been able to manage it and play at the same time.”
Ishikawa is batting .203 with one home run and eight RBI.
Mercer will be available off the bench for this game. With Ishikawa going on the DL, the Pirates will not have a left-handed bat off their bench tonight. This likely will be the norm when a right-handed starter faces the Pirates. Hurdle did admit that this was less than ideal, however he was not too stressed over it.
Bottom of the ninth: Now that the Pirates are so to speak back to full strength, Hurdle was once again asked about how playing time would spread out. Though he did not go into too much detail, he did say that whoever performs will play.
“Neither of those guys are being plugged in as starters,” said Hurdle. “Jordy will get some starts. Jung Ho needs to play. Ramirez’s bat has played. We’ll look at a number of indicators.”
Francisco Cervelli is hitting .375 on Sunday games this season and Neil Walker is hitting .360… The Pirates have won eight of the past nine games started by Liriano… Since the All-Star Break, the Pirates lead all National League teams in OPS [.770] and rank second behind the Diamondbacks with a .330 on-base percentage… The Pirates have homered in 14 of their last 16 games… The Pirates need an attendance of 39,331 fans to break the record for a four-game series played at PNC Park. The record was set earlier this season against the Washington Nationals when 151,952 fans attended the series… Joe Blanton has made six straight scoreless appearances which total 13.1 innings… Andrew McCutchen ranks fifth with an OBP of .439.
Photo credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
