The Pirates (39 \u2013 26) look for the sweep of the Giants (33 \u2013 31) tonight after winning the battle of the bats last night by the score of 12 \u2013 8. Charlie Morton will make his 2013 debut and will oppose Matt Cain (4 \u2013 3, 5.09 ERA).<\/p>\n
This will be Morton\u2019s first start since May 29th<\/sup> of last season vs. Cincinnati where he went 4 innings while giving up 4 runs on 6 hits in a loss. Last season, Morton went 2 \u2013 6 with a 4.65 ERA in 9 games before getting shut down for season-ending Tommy John surgery on his right elbow on June 14th<\/sup>. (1 year ago tomorrow)<\/p>\n In four years with the Pirates, Morton is 19 \u2013 37 in 73 starts with the Pirates and has a 4.85 ERA in that time with 256 strikeouts and 154 walks. His best season with the Bucs came in 2011 where he went 10 \u2013 10 with a 3.83 ERA. Manager, Clint Hurdle hopes to see the stuff Charlie Morton had then out on the mound this season; \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 Worth Noting<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n — A.J. Burnett <\/strong>will miss his Start on\u00a0Friday vs. the Dodgers with a right calf issue. No word yet (as of 4:15 pm) if he will be put on the DL. Jeff Locke will be pushed up a day and start on Friday. No starter has been announced for Saturday.<\/p>\n — Last night, the Pirates top four batters combined to go 13-for-19 with 8 runs scored. Each player collected at least three hits apiece. According to Elias, this is only the fourth time in the last 59 seasons (since 1954) that the Pirates top four had at least three hits apiece. (April 16, 1996, August 13, 1974, May 13, 2004)<\/p>\n — Starling Marte (20 SB) <\/strong>and Andrew McCutchen (15 SB) <\/strong>are the only teammates in the Majors who have at least 15 stolen bases this season. The last pair to have at least 20 before the All-Star break were Andy Van Slyke (21 SB) <\/strong>and Barry Bonds (20 SB) <\/strong>in 1987.<\/p>\n First pitch is set for 7:05.<\/p>\n (Photo Credit:\u00a0\u00a0Jared Wickerham\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Pirates (39 \u2013 26) look for the sweep of the Giants (33 \u2013 31) tonight after winning the battle of the bats last night by the score of 12 \u2013 8. Charlie Morton will make his 2013 debut and will oppose Matt Cain (4 \u2013 3, 5.09 ERA). This will be Morton\u2019s first start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1915,625,659,725,520,377,724,1225],"class_list":["post-15417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-a-j-burnett","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-charlie-morton","tag-matt-cain","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-starling-marte"],"yoast_head":"\n