The Pirates (23 \u2013 17) look to take another 4-game series as they face the Brewers (16 \u2013 22) in the final game of the mid-week set. Francisco Liriano (1 \u2013 0, 1.69 ERA) will make his first home start as a Pirate as he faces Hiram Burgos. (1 \u2013 1, 6.86 ERA)<\/p>\n
Hurdles Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the state of the team at the quarter point \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cI like the direction we\u2019re headed. I like the rotation, now. There could be some addition, or two, moving forward. The depth has never been better. I do believe there will be more innings out of the starters as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOffensively, the lineup\u2019s never been deeper. We still got some guys, in house, that are capable of doing more and we have some guys that we are getting fantastic production from right now.\u201d<\/p>\n On the status of Jared Hughes in the minors \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cHe\u2019s down pitching in AAA, right now. He\u2019s starting to get his feet back under him.\u201d<\/p>\n On the bullpen\u2019s status for tonight \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cGrilli will not be available tonight. Melancon, we\u2019re going to check it out. Back-to-back days, 28 pitches. It\u2019s under the 30-pitch mark but we\u2019ll let him go out and play catch and see what his arm tells us and what he tells us. Everybody else is good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n On the evolving of defensive strategy\u2019s in baseball against a hitter \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cI played in an era when a ball hit up the middle was a base-hit, it was called a diamond cutter. That\u2019s no longer true, 8 groundball\u2019s hit up the middle and 5 of them the shortstop\u2019s sitting right in front of it if they\u2019ve done any type of research on it or had any major league experience. The game\u2019s changed dramatically with the defensive shift.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n — The Pirates are looking to take 3-of-4 from an opponent for the 4th<\/sup> time this season (ATL, PHI, STL, NYM). Each time, they have lost the first game of the series and have come back to win the final three.<\/p>\n — Charlie Morton will make his next rehab start on in Indy, Karstens will throw his next start in Altoona on Saturday.<\/p>\n — The Pirates (23 \u2013 17) have the third-best record in the majors since April 8th<\/sup> (22 \u2013 12). They have recorded 23 wins in the first 40 games for the first time since 1992 (24 \u2013 16).<\/p>\n — Neil Walker is a force when it comes to hitting with the bases loaded. In his career, he\u2019s 17-for-34 (.500) with 45 RBI. With his 2 RBI single with the bases loaded last night, he\u2019s 2-for-3 with 4 RBI this season.<\/p>\n — Francisco Liriano, who is making his home debut tonight, made his Pirates debut in New York last Saturday where he gave up one run and struck out nine batters in a Pirates 11 \u2013 2 victory. The last pitcher to record at least nine strikeouts in his Pirates debut was Tim Wakefield, who struck out ten in a 3 \u2013 2 complete-game victory over the Cardinals on July, 31 1992.<\/p>\n First pitch is set for 7:05<\/p>\n (Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Pirates (23 \u2013 17) look to take another 4-game series as they face the Brewers (16 \u2013 22) in the final game of the mid-week set. Francisco Liriano (1 \u2013 0, 1.69 ERA) will make his first home start as a Pirate as he faces Hiram Burgos. (1 \u2013 1, 6.86 ERA) Hurdles Notes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[659,616,2154,622,2092,520,620,377],"class_list":["post-15174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-charlie-morton","tag-clint-hurdle","tag-francisco-liriano","tag-jeff-karstens","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-neil-walker","tag-pittsburgh-pirates"],"yoast_head":"\n