#Pirates DL Jason Grilli (L oblique strain) and recall Jared Hughes — active for tonight's game v #StLCardsa — Tom Singer (@Tom_Singer) April 25, 2014
Jason Grilli to the disabled list
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/25/2014
Archives
The long nightmarish homestand has ended
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The Pirates are back on the road after a terrible homestand. Gerrit Cole and Shelby Miller are on the mound at Busch Stadium tonight. Cole’s last start was excellent, Carlos-Gomez-related-shenanigans aside. The Pirates have owned Shelby Miller. They’re at a point where if they’re a good team, they’ll find a way to turn things around. […]
Sports Illustrated: Gregory Polanco is ‘the next big thing’
His name is Gregory Polanco, and he’s the X-factor in the National League Central race, the sleeper pickup in your fantasy baseball league and one of the most enthralling prospects in the game; no player in the minors right now — not Archie Bradley, not Oscar Taveras, not Byron Buxton — is more deserving of a ticket to The Show.
Putting aside the issues with drawing conclusions from a 20-game Triple-A sample (I thought you could fairly argue in spring training that Polanco required some Triple-A seasoning given his lack of experience above High-A coming into 2014, and 20 games don’t really change that particular argument much no matter how good those 20 games have been), Polanco’s off to an incredible start that’s making my “He might only help the Pirates on defense this year” stance. The Polanco drumbeat is only going to get louder and louder between now and the day he finally gets promoted, whenever that is.
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A very late recap — Game 23: Reds 2 Pirates 1
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The reason that I’ve held this recap until this morning, almost 24 hours after the game, is that the Pirates are a really hard team to write about right now. It’s hard to avoid being overly negative or inappropriately chipper, and I’m not sure that either of those responses is quite right for the situation. […]
Brandon Cumpton makes his 2014 debut as the Pirates try to salvage something from this awful homestand
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/24/2014
Let’s not pull any punches: regardless of today’s outcome, the Pirates are going to wrap up two straight weeks of playing the Reds and Brewers with either a 4-10 or 3-11 record. The word to describe this is “disastrous,” even in April. Games in April count, too. The Pirates close out an eight-game homestand against […]
Game 22: Reds 5 Pirates 2
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/23/2014
When the Reds start a reliever and that reliever walks three straight hitters on 16 pitches in the first inning to score a run, you should probably find a way to score more than two runs off of him in 6 2/3 innings. Image: …some guy, Flickr
Charlie Morton looks for his first win against the Reds
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I’ve spent much of my focus on Francisco Liriano’s slow start to 2014, but the honest truth is that Charlie Morton is pretty close behind him in terms of frustration. It seemed like Morton was poised to take a big step forward in 2014 by combining his ground ball tendencies, his post-TJS velocity, and a […]
Game 21: Reds 4 Pirates 1
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/22/2014
For six innings, Edinson Volquez matched Johnny Cueto out for out. He held the Reds to two base runners (one hit, one HBP), he was throwing all of his pitches where he wanted them, he was getting ahead of hitters and staying ahead. In the seventh, he got into some trouble, gave up a couple […]
Edinson Volquez faces his old team
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The Edinson Volquez Redemption Tour stays at PNC Park tonight for Volquez’s first matchup of the season against the Cincinnati Reds team that he’s spent much of his career pitching for. Not so long ago, Volquez and Johnny Cueto represented a bright future for the Reds. Tonight, they’re mound opponents. As good as Volquez has […]
Suspensions for Sunday’s fight
For Milwaukee, catcher Martin Maldonado received a five-game suspension and [Carlos] Gomez was suspended for three. Pittsburgh outfielder Travis Snider was suspended for two games and catcher Russell Martin received a one-game suspension.
And nobody ever talked about it again. Right? RIGHT?!?
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Francisco Liriano looked much more like himself last night
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I glossed over the more analytical aspects of last night’s game in my recap from last night, but I wanted to follow up on Francisco Liriano’s start since I’ve been paying so much attention to his performance to start the year. I watched the ESPN feed last night (there was no ROOT feed last night […]
A few updates and thoughts on the Wandy Rodriguez situation
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The news about Wandy Rodriguez hitting the disabled list for a knee problem came at the end of the work day yesterday, so I didn’t have a chance to post much about it. The situation is a bit clearer now, so getting a post together today is probably a little bit more useful anyway. There’s […]
Game 20: Pirates 6 Reds 5
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/21/2014
These last few games have been awfully hard to recap or make any sense of. The Pirates didn’t play badly in any of their three losses to end the Milwaukee series and honestly could’ve swept the Brewers with any luck at all, but they also did some pretty specifically terrible things to ensure each of the […]
Francisco Liriano tries to right the ship
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I’ve written quite a bit about Francisco Liriano’s early-season struggles before and after his start against the Reds last week. There are two things to watch tonight, I think. The first is just his overall velocity, which has been down enough in the early season to catch my eye. The second is his pitch selection against righties; […]
Pirates place Wandy Rodriguez on 15-day DL
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RHP Jared Hughes has been recalled from @indyindians & Wandy Rodriguez has been placed on the 15-day DL due to right knee inflammation. — Pirates (@Pirates) April 21, 2014
Game 19: Brewers 3 Pirates 2
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/20/2014
Really, there are only two points that I’d like to make after this game. The first is this: It’s a problem when the Pirates score a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 2-1 lead and your first thought is, “Goddammit, this means Grilli will come in to close out the […]
Gerrit Cole tries to get the Pirates a split with the Brewers
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What I would really like to see today is the Pirates win by a score of, say, 4-1. Seven solid innings from Gerrit Cole and enough hits to make the game not all that close. I dunno, not much else to say this morning. First pitch is at 1:35. Image credit: Jackie on Flickr
Game 18: Brewers 8 Pirates 7
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/19/2014
I don’t want to put too much stock into any individual April baseball game, but this is a pretty tough loss to swallow. The Pirates went into the seventh inning with a two-run lead despite Wandy Rodriguez spending four innings throwing floating meatballs to Brewer hitters, and then the Pirates’ best relievers served up two […]
Pirates activate Chris Stewart, demote Tony Sanchez
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The Pirates officially announced today that Chris Stewart has been activated from the disabled list and Tony Sanchez will be sent back to Triple-A. There has been a lot of discussion about this move over the course of the season since Sanchez is off to a hot start with his bat. I’m personally a bit […]
Some thoughts on the Ike Davis/Zack Thornton trade
0 comments by Pat Lackey on 4/18/2014
I didn’t get to see any of the Pirates and Brewers tonight, so I’m not going to spend any time recapping it; they left guys on base, Charlie Morton was frustrating, he gave up another homer to a righty, someone hit the cover off of the ball, and the Pirates lost. I’ll talk more about […]
