The Pirates (38 – 26) look to build off of Gerrit Cole’s solid debut tonight against the Giants (33 – 30) in a battle of lefty’s, as Francisco Liriano (4 – 2, 1.75 ERA) will take on Barry Zito (4 – 4, 4.06 ERA).
Leading-Off
Since 1937, Gerrit Cole is only the second pitcher to get 2 RBI and a victory in their major league debut. The only other person to do that was Jason Jennings in 2001. “He beat me to the park today” said manager, Clint Hurdle. “He was pretty jazzed up.” Hurdle
Hurdle’s Quotes
On the change of Charlie Morton’s “stuff” since his surgery – “He got a kid” (Laughs) “From the reports I have been getting, does it look the same? I haven’t seen him in person. I’ve seen video, it’s not the same and I’m looking forward to seeing him. If we can go get the Charlie that we had the first half of the season in 2011, we’ll take that in a bottle and roll. I think he’s heading in that direction.”
On having more pitching depth compared to the last two seasons – “I had some tough decisions to make (about the rotation) a few weeks ago and now I don’t have many of those tough decision to make. Through attrition, through injury, things happen and more often than not, they work themselves out.” “This is the most depth we’ve had here. Similar circumstance, on the back half of the year we used ten starting pitchers in Colorado which is a lot. I loved our depth going in, it was part of our game plan this winter – starting rotation depth. We have taken on water and we are still in a very good place. (Concerning the amount of starters/relievers on the DL)”
Other Notes
— According to Elias, Gerrit Cole is the third Pirates pitcher since 1900 to pitch six innings without allowing a walk in his ML debut. The other two were George Merritt (Sept 6, 1901) and Len Gilmore (Oct 1, 1944).
— The Pirates have won their last seven games that have been decided by one run at home which matches the club’s longest streak over the last 36 seasons. Their longest was 13 in a row at Three Rivers Stadium in 1977.
— Gerrit Cole is slated to make his second start with the Pirates on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the homestand against the Dodgers.
First pitch is set for 7:05.
(Photo Credit: Keith Srakocic)
