The Pirates (38 \u2013 26) look to build off of Gerrit Cole\u2019s solid debut tonight against the Giants (33 \u2013 30) in a battle of lefty\u2019s, as Francisco Liriano (4 \u2013 2, 1.75 ERA) will take on Barry Zito (4 \u2013 4, 4.06 ERA).<\/p>\n
Leading-Off<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 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. \u201cHe beat me to the park today\u201d said manager, Clint Hurdle. \u201cHe was pretty jazzed up.\u201d Hurdle<\/p>\n Hurdle\u2019s Quotes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n On the change of Charlie Morton\u2019s \u201cstuff\u201d since his surgery \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cHe got a kid\u201d (Laughs) \u201cFrom the reports I have been getting, does it look the same? I haven\u2019t seen him in person. I\u2019ve seen video, it\u2019s not the same and I\u2019m looking forward to seeing him. If we can go get the Charlie that we had the first half of the season in 2011, we\u2019ll take that in a bottle and roll. I think he\u2019s heading in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n On having more pitching depth compared to the last two seasons \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cI had some tough decisions to make (about the rotation) a few weeks ago and now I don\u2019t have many of those tough decision to make. Through attrition, through injury, things happen and more often than not, they work themselves out.\u201d \u201cThis is the most depth we\u2019ve 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 \u2013 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)\u201d<\/p>\n Other Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n — According to Elias, Gerrit Cole<\/strong> 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<\/strong> (Sept 6, 1901) and Len Gilmore <\/strong>(Oct 1, 1944).<\/p>\n — The Pirates have won their last seven games that have been decided by one run at home which matches the club\u2019s longest streak over the last 36 seasons. Their longest was 13 in a row at Three Rivers Stadium in 1977.<\/p>\n — Gerrit Cole<\/strong> is slated to make his second start with the Pirates on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the homestand against the Dodgers.<\/p>\n First pitch is set for 7:05.<\/p>\n (Photo Credit: Keith Srakocic)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Pirates (38 \u2013 26) look to build off of Gerrit Cole\u2019s solid debut tonight against the Giants (33 \u2013 30) in a battle of lefty\u2019s, as Francisco Liriano (4 \u2013 2, 1.75 ERA) will take on Barry Zito (4 \u2013 4, 4.06 ERA). Leading-Off Since 1937, Gerrit Cole is only the second pitcher to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1905,2154,1098,520,377,724],"class_list":["post-15404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-barry-zito","tag-francisco-liriano","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"yoast_head":"\n