The Pirates (24 \u2013 17), fresh off of their series victory over the Brewers, open up a 3-game interleague series against the Astros (11 \u2013 30). This will be the only series between the two former NL Central foes as the Astros moved to the AL West after last season. The Pirates have an 18 \u2013 7 home record against Houston in their last 25 games.<\/p>\n
Hurdle\u2019s Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Gaby Sanchez transitioning from every day starter, to platoon player \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cIt speaks to his character as well as his skill set. He went from being a very, very good baseball player for two years in Miami. He ran into a hard year, last season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got him at a good point in time where things weren\u2019t working the way he expected and I think the environment change helped him. The climate in the clubhouse has helped him as well. He\u2019s willing to work with whatever opportunity he gets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Jeanmar Gomez\u2019s success as a fill-in starter \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cHe\u2019s got the ball. He understands the responsibility of the spot in the rotation, he\u2019s done it before. I think that\u2019s one of the things he\u2019s embraced. He\u2019s getting the opportunity, now, to do it. He knows what he needs to do to be effective. We\u2019re confident when he takes the mound and he is, as well based on every time he\u2019s taken the ball, he\u2019s pitched a competitive game for us, whether in long-relief or his three starts. \u201c<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On dealing with players when it comes to setting a lineup \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cEverybody will tell you that they\u2019re all in till that lineup gets posted from time-to-time and they don\u2019t happen to be in it and that\u2019s one of the things that we\u2019ve been able to work through very professionally here.<\/p>\n \u201cThey understand the big picture and the good teams that go on to play late, you hear it every year, it took all of us and there\u2019s different guys that you rely upon through the course of the season to provide sparks, like Tabata in New York or Snider last night.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n — Catcher, Russell Martin leads the majors with 9 caught stealing\u2019s. According to Elias, he has thrown out 225 base runners since his ML debut in 2006.<\/p>\n — \u00a0\u00a0As a starter, Jeanmar Gomez has a 1 \u2013 0 record with a 1.93 ERA (3 ER \/ 14 IN) over three starts. The Pirates have won each of those games.<\/p>\n — Clint Barmes is on a seven game hit-streak (10-for-26, .385). In his last 15 games (starting on 4\/27), he has gone 17-for-46 (.370) with two homers.<\/p>\n — The Shark Tank will be pretty stocked for tonight\u2019s game. Only Bryan Morris will be unavailable out of the pen.<\/p>\n First pitch is set for 7:05.<\/p>\n (Photo Credit: David Hague)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Pirates (24 \u2013 17), fresh off of their series victory over the Brewers, open up a 3-game interleague series against the Astros (11 \u2013 30). This will be the only series between the two former NL Central foes as the Astros moved to the AL West after last season. The Pirates have an 18 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1733,855,2157,520,377,2152],"class_list":["post-15189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-clint-barmes","tag-houston-astros","tag-jeanmar-gomez","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-russell-martin"],"yoast_head":"\n