1:35 PM–PNC Park, Pittsburgh

MLB.com Gameday

TV: ROOT, TBS

The Bucs and Dodgers battle in a rubber match this afternoon on a rainy Father’s Day in Pittsburgh.

Pregame news:

• Brandon Cumpton will start again on Thursday, his next scheduled turn in the rotation.
• Starling Marte is still out.
• Russell Martin was scratched with a lower body injury.

Today’s starters…

Zack Greinke (3-1, 3.68) vs. Gerrit Cole (1-0, 2.84)

Greinke represents another big test for the Pirate offense. The big-money righty has been solid for the Dodgers so far this year (when healthy) but has also been in the middle of two big brawls. The Pirates have enough injuries to deal with so hopefully there are no more fireworks today.

Cole is making his second start after an impressive first one that received plenty of fanfare. Everyone is surely looking forward to seeing him again, and the Pirates are going to rely on him a bit now that their two veteran starters are on the DL. It’ll be interesting to see if he goes to his changeup and curve/slider more often – he was mostly pounding his fastball (which worked just fine for the most part) in his first game.

Bucs vs. Greinke

Brandon Cumpton immediately caught everyone’s attention with an incredible start to his big league debut. The righty isn’t known as a big strikeout guy, but he went right at the Dodgers and struck out all three batters in the first inning – then tacked on two more in the second. He set down the first eight before walking Clayton Kershaw, and put four zeroes on the board to start the game. Pretty cool stuff for a kid who most didn’t really expect anything from coming in to the game.

Meanwhile, the Bucs got a quick run off Kershaw in the first (thanks to an airmailed throw by Hanley Ramirez) and you had to start thinking they had a chance at pulling off an improbable victory. Both pitchers settled in to their expected forms in the middle innings, though. The Dodgers started hitting Cumpton and didn’t strike out against him the rest of the way. Kershaw went in to cruise control and posted seven strong innings while allowing just three hits. Cumpton left the game trailing 2-1 in the sixth, and an inherited runner scored off Bryan Morris to make it 3-1. Morris and Justin Wilson (who was throwing HEAT – he hit 100!) did a nice job keeping the Dodgers at three runs.

The Pirates did have one big opportunity (after the first) off Kershaw, and came inches short of a big blow. Andrew McCutchen singled to lead off the fifth and Gaby Sanchez reached on a rare catcher interference call. Then Russell Martin got a hold of a high fastball and pounded it to left…but Skip Schumaker caught it while standing against the wall – robbing a 3-run homer. The Bucs couldn’t get anything else out of the inning.

Once Kershaw was out of the game (after 7), though, the Bucs mounted their comeback. Jordy Mercer started the eighth with a hit, Cutch walked, and with two outs Neil Walker came up big (batting righty) with an RBI single. They still needed a run in the ninth, though, and Travis Snider delivered it all by himself off fireballing closer Kenley Jansen. Snider’s clutch 1-out bomb tied the game, and  the Bucs had to be feeling good about their chances in extras. They haven’t won a game in which they trailed in the 9th inning yet this year, but had a chance to change that.

It didn’t happen, but might have if Nick Leyva had made a gamble. Martin worked a 2-out walk in the tenth and Walker ripped another big hit – a double to the RF corner. Martin chugged to third but Leyva held him up – and then the throw sailed WELL off target. Root Sports showed a great camera angle that basically showed Leyva’s point of view, and it made his decision seem like the right one. Martin was well short of third base by the time Yasiel Puig picked up the ball at the Clemente wall, and Puig has a great arm. If Puig had hit the cut off man, a routine throw by an infielder would have easily nailed Martin. If Puig hadn’t hit the cutoff man but made a throw on-line, he still probably had Martin out. It turned out his throw did neither of those things, but Leyva didn’t know that until it was too late. Pedro Alvarez was intentionally walked and Michael McKenry popped out, ending the threat.

That would be costly for the Bucs. Mark Melancon had tossed a 5-pitch 10th but was pinch-hit for so he couldn’t come back out (I don’t know if Hurdle would’ve considered it). Jason Grilli wasn’t used, though, and Vin Mazzaro is, well, not as good. He had a rough inning and allowed two runs. The Bucs got two on in the bottom of the inning but couldn’t get them home, finishing a difficult loss.

You can’t feel too badly about the Bucs dropping a matchup in which they threw a spot starter against a Cy Young winner, but they had several chances to win it and came just short. It was a good battle and a fun game, but a frustrating defeat. Rubber match tomorrow.

Dodgers 5, Pirates 3 / Box / 2013 Record: 40-28 / Next: Sunday, vs. Dodgers, 1:35

Source: FanGraphs

4:05 PM–PNC Park, Pittsburgh

MLB.com Gameday

TV: ROOT

The Bucs look for two in a row and a series win this afternoon against the Dodgers. It won’t be easy. The game is at 4 today, presumably to avoid the 7 PM FOX blackout window.

Pregame news:

• Mike Zagurski was DFA’d to make room for today’s starter. Thank goodness.
• Starling Marte is still out and could hit the DL if he isn’t ready to go by the end of the weekend. Ugh.

Today’s starters…

Clayton Kershaw (5-4, 1.88) vs. Brandon Cumpton (0-0, 0.00)

Kershaw is one of (if not THE) best in the business, as you can see by that ERA. The lefty is ridiculously good and the Pirates will almost certainly have all kinds of problems hitting against him today. The good news is that the Dodgers have been terrible enough to somehow lose behind him four times already.

Cumpton is basically an emergency call up and will be making his major league debut. The 2010 9th round pick out of Georgia Tech has had a good minor league career – nothing jumps out, but he’s done his job ascending through the minors. His AAA numbers this season are fine – he’s not a highly regarded prospect but could continue to work his way up, much like Phil Irwin. The Pirates didn’t have many options today and he ended up being the one getting the call. Here’s a more in-depth scouting report.

Bucs vs. Kershaw

Here’s the #Pirates lineup for today’s 4:05pm game at PNC. #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/QFBcWi2dpR

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 15, 2013

Jeff Locke

Locke was remarkably efficient. He was basically the definition of a pitcher “cruising” through seven innings. He needed a mere 75 pitches and allowed just two hits (one of them a leadoff bunt single) and one walk. Two of the three baserunners that reached against him were quickly erased on double plays. Locke also struck out five, which is continued reason to hope that this is for real. He now has the fifth best ERA in the National League! This was a guy that some thought didn’t deserve to make the rotation during spring training. Incredible.

The Pirates were able to put up a two spot off Stephen Fife in the third inning when the first two batters reached and Andrew McCutchen doubled them in. That was all the Bucs would need, although they threatened a few other times early in the game and came up empty. McCutchen added a run basically by himself in the eighth with some daring baserunning after a leadoff single – he went first-to-third (barely) on a single and caught Adrian Gonzalez off guard by successfully tagging up on Neil Walker‘s foul out to first – which earned Neil a “sac fly.”

Locke easily could have stayed in the game and would have had a chance to go all the way, but Clint Hurdle doesn’t seem to like letting his guys go past seven. Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli took care of business, although they both made things dicier than usual by allowing two hits each. They recovered to get big strikeouts to earn the usual hold and save, respectively.

The next two games will be an uphill battle, but this was a very solid performance by the Bucs that has them up in the series and feeling better after an awful game on Thursday.

Pirates 3, Dodgers 0 / Box / 2013 Record: 40-27 / Next: Saturday, vs. Dodgers, 4:05

Source: FanGraphs

7:05 PM–PNC Park, Pittsburgh

MLB.com Gameday

TV: ROOT

The Bucs kick off a weekend series against the last-place LA Dodgers tonight. Yep, last place. Despite spending tons and tons of money over the past year, the Dodgers have struggled (injuries haven’t helped) so far this season. That said, they are still a very talented club and swept the Bucs out of LA in the first week of the season. They’ve also got rookie phenom Yasiel Puig.

Pregame news:

• A.J. Burnett unfortunately had to go on the DL yesterday with his calf injury. None of the familiar options are available to start for the Bucs on Saturday, so Brandon Cumpton will come up. He’s a young righty with fairly solid numbers in Indianapolis. More on him tomorrow.
• Starling Marte is still out with discomfort in his ribs (from sliding head first).
• The Dodgers were in a huge brawl with the D-Backs earlier this week, and a few suspensions were handed out today. They won’t affect the series too much though – only one player (reliever Ronald Belisario) will serve the suspension right away (the other two are appealing). Manager Don Mattingly and hitting coach Mark McGwire will serve suspensions tonight (and tomorrow as well for McGwire).

Tonight’s starters…

Stephen Fife (1-1, 3.78) vs. Jeff Locke (5-1, 2.39)

Fife has made just eight major league starts and has been decent so far for the Dodgers. He’s allowed his fair share of hits in three games so far this year but is coming off a solid performance against the Braves. The Bucs need to get going against him, because they’ll face Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke the next two days.

Locke has been strong all year for the Bucs, but he walked an alarming seven batters in his last start. That needs to stop. Jeff has been getting a bunch more strikeouts lately, though, which is reason to hope that he can continue his early season success. The Dodgers beat him in his first start of the season.

Dodgers vs. Locke

Here we go! RT@ApStef Here’s your #Pirates lineup for tonight’s 7:05pm game at PNC! #LetsGoBucs #AYCTBucs #PackPNC pic.twitter.com/u9grqGF1rA

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 14, 2013

Charlie Morton‘s outing was probably the most positive takeaway from the game – and he was just mediocre. Morton came out throwing 95 MPH fastballs and his curve was looking filthy, generating several swings and misses. He struggled with command for a while (just one walk but 3 HBP) and suffered from some tough luck in the field (which always seems to happen to him). An extremely questionable “interference” call on Pedro Alvarez in the fifth led to two unearned runs, and that inning ended up being his last. Charlie was charged with two earned runs and allowed seven hits, but he struck out five – mostly thanks to the curve. Not a particularly good outing, but not bad either (especially for his first major league start in over a year). He’ll stick around in the rotation, at least until A.J. Burnett and Wandy Rodriguez return.

The rest of the game was a total disaster in every way. Matt Cain cruised through 6.2 shutout innings and was hardly threatened at all – he carried a no hitter in to the 5th. Mike Zagurski (the new human white flag of the bullpen) came on after Morton and had his worst outing yet – which is saying quite a bit. It was only 4-0 when he entered, but he allowed five runs to put the game well out of reach. Wandy and AJ’s unexpected DL stints have kept Zagurski on the roster (he would’ve surely been the one sent out to make room for Cole and/or Morton), but there’s no way he should survive Saturday’s roster move.

The Pirates won the series, but nobody’s feeling too good about that after this beat down to wrap it up. They’ll move on and hopefully recover for a better effort against another West Coast squad this weekend.

Giants 10, Pirates 0 / Box / 2013 Record: 39-27 / Next: Friday, vs. Dodgers, 7:05

Source: FanGraphs

7:05 PM–PNC Park, Pittsburgh

MLB.com Gameday

TV: ROOT

The Pirates go for a sweep of the Giants tonight as they debut their second pitcher in three days.

Pregame news:

• This isn’t good: A.J. Burnett will miss his start on Friday. Jeff Locke will move up a day to pitch that game, but that leaves the Bucs scrambling for another starter on Saturday. Burnett has discomfort in his calf and the DL may be a possiblity. Uh oh.
• Better news: Prospect Gregory Polanco has been promoted to AA.

Tonight’s starters…

Matt Cain (4-3, 5.09) vs. Charlie Morton (0-0, 0.00)

Cain’s ERA is up way higher than you’d expect, but he’s still an ace and is pitching on the one year anniversary of his perfect game last season. He also nearly threw a perfect game against the Bucs last year – James McDonald recorded the only hit against him. The Pirates have been hitting the ball well the last two games, so maybe they can keep it up against a guy that is struggling more than he’s used to.

While Cain is pitching on the anniversary of a perfect game, Morton is pitching on the (near) anniversary of Tommy John surgery. Charlie has been inconsistent in his rehab starts this year but his last one was quite good. I’m not convinced he’s one of the Pirates’ best five starters when all are healthy, but with Wandy and Burnett going down they could need him quite a bit going forward. I’m a huge Morton fan and am really hoping the return of #ElectricStuff and #GroundChuck goes well.

Bucs vs. Cain

Giants vs. Morton

We finally saw the Pirates really explode on offense – they pounded a season high 18 hits and scored a season high 12 runs. Barry Zito was bad (as he has been all season on the road), but the Pirates were able to take full advantage and then some. The effort was led by the top of the order – Starling Marte, Jordy Mercer, and Andrew McCutchen went 8 for their first 8 on the night and combined for 10 hits total. Marte added two stolen bases to his 4-for-4 night, and McCutchen took advantage of all the baserunners with 3 RBI’s.

The middle of the order brought home several runs as well – Russell Martin, Pedro Alvarez, and Neil Walker all had hits and RBI’s. Later in the game, Walker and Alex Presley tacked on solo homers over the Clemente wall. The Bucs knocked Zito out of the game in the fifth and kept the attack coming against the Giants’ pen. They only failed to score in two innings – the second and fourth.

The game was sort of shaping up to be a blowout early on, but it turned out the Bucs needed most of the runs. Francisco Liriano wasn’t too sharp – he only struck out two and the Giants squared him up for eight hits. He was able to get through six, which was a plus, but gave up a 4-1 lead and let San Francisco back into the game.

The Bucs responded and went back up big again, but the bullpen also had a rough evening. Justin Wilson and Tony Watson both pitched one inning and both allowed two runs. They picked a good night to have poor outings, but that’s two bad innings in a row for Wilson – plus his velocity seemed to be down. That may be something to watch going forward. Jason Grilli took care of the ninth with the Bucs up four – normally that would be infuriating, but he hadn’t pitched since Friday so I can live with it.

You certainly can’t complain too much about the Bucs having a bad day on the mound, and you have to love seeing a huge night from the offense. Tomorrow will be a much tougher test, and it’s good to have the series in hand going in to a matchup against Matt Cain.

Pirates 12, Giants 8 / Box / 2013 Record: 39-26 / Next: Thursday, vs. Giants, 7:05

Source: FanGraphs

7:05 PM–PNC Park, Pittsburgh

MLB.com Gameday

TV: ROOT

The Bucs go for two in a row tonight and a series win against the defending champion Giants. Last night was a brilliant start to this homestand against west coast squads, and the Bucs now have a chance to do some damage this week against some struggling teams.

Pregame news:

• Giants manager Bruce Bochy has been suspended one game after last night’s beanball incident. He will serve it tonight.
• Pitcher George Kontos was suspended three games, but he was sent down to the minors today.
• Marco Scutaro, who was hit by a Tony Watson pitch last night, is out tonight and could miss significant time for the Giants.
• Gerrit Cole will officially start on Sunday against the Dodgers.
• Charlie Morton will start tomorrow. Wandy Rodriguez is on the DL.

Tonight’s starters…

Barry Zito (4-4, 4.06) vs. Francisco Liriano (4-2, 1.75)

It’s a battle of veteran lefties tonight at PNC. Zito is having a decent season but has been horrendous on the road (10.19 ERA in four starts). Let’s hope that continues tonight. The Pirate bats finally woke up yesterday for a bit and it would be great if they can keep it up for this homestand.

Liriano has been absolutely fabulous for the Bucs. His last start was great, but we did see the command problems we’ve heard about so much with him. Ideally he can stay around the strike zone tonight in a home start against a fairly weak lineup.

Bucs vs. Zito

Giants vs. Liriano

Here’s the #Pirates lineup for tonight’s #BucSocial Night at PNC. 7:05pm first pitch. twitter.com/Pirates/status…

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 12, 2013

Don’t ask me why Brandon Inge is playing right field.

The buzz at PNC Park was evident right away. Fans squeezed and packed themselves all around the bullpen area to see Cole warm up. He got a big cheer when the lineup was announced, then again when he walked in from the bullpen, then a significant ovation when he took the mound.

Then, the moment everyone was waiting and hoping for. First pitch, strike, 96. Then another strike at 97. 0-2 count. The PNC crowd actually built up some great anticipation for the pitch, which is mostly unheard of unless it’s the final out of the game. They were rewarded with strike three, 99 MPH. The place went nuts.

Cole went on to give up a couple hits in the first, but worked out of the inning. The Giants loaded the bases on him in the second, but he worked out of that as well. Both scoreless innings had to be huge confidence boosts for Cole…and by the time he took the mound in the third, his confidence had to be through the roof. The Bucs loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second, but Clint Barmes popped out, bringing up Cole and giving Tim Lincecum a possible escape route for the inning. After falling behind 0-2, Cole laid off some close pitches and then lined a 3-2 pitch into the gap for a 2-run single. Pandemonium. The incredible thing is that Cole had only made 9 minor league plate appearances (0 for 6) and didn’t hit in college…so that was his first hit since high school.

Once he had the lead, Cole worked through some extremely quick and efficient innings. He wasn’t racking up the K’s – much like his last few minor league starts – but the Giants weren’t making good contact against his great heater or his off speed pitches, which he mixed in a bit more during the later innings (he pumped mostly fastballs early on). Gerrit breezed though the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth despite getting just one more strikeout (of Buster Posey). Still, it was clear that he was in command and pitching well. The Giants finally made some noise against him in the seventh, and after three hits brought in a run, Clint Hurdle came out to the mound and the crowd erupted once again for a truly awesome standing ovation. Really cool moment – and the crowd (of over 30K on a Tuesday) was fantastic. Not only was it large in numbers, but it was extremely loud and engaged in the game, making for a pretty awesome atmosphere.

The Pirate bats were able to make sure Cole earned his first major league win after he jumpstarted the offense himself. Garrett Jones and Pedro Alvarez delivered big hits in the fourth, knocking out Lincecum early. Starling Marte tacked on a solo shot in the 6th – his first in quite a while. Alvarez, who would have been the clear star of the game if not for Cole, put an exclamation point on the evening with a huge 2-run blast in the seventh. Pedro went 3 for 3 with the bomb, 3 RBI, and a HBP.

The Bucs’ bullpen had no problems wrapping things up, while the Giants ‘pen exhibited some frustration. A pitch behind Marte in the eighth and a HBP of McCutchen that looked intentional prompted a warning and ejection of pitcher George Kontos and manager Bruce Bochy. I’m not really sure what that was about. Cole and Tony Watson both hit a batter apiece (and both looked quite painful), but both came in fairly big situations and couldn’t have been intentional.

All in all, it was a brilliant evening for the Pirates. Cole looks like he’s here to stay, and Pittsburgh is happy to have him in town.

Pirates 8, Giants 2 / Box / 2013 Record: 38-26 / Next: Wednesday, vs. Giants, 7:05

Source: FanGraphs