PNC Park — The Pirates (54 \u2013 36), fresh off of a 5 \u2013 0 victory against Oakland on Wednesday, are back at PNC to finish the first half off against the Mets (40 \u2013 48) in the first of three starting tonight. Charlie Morton (1 \u2013 2, 3.38 ERA) will face Jeremy Hefner (4 \u2013 6, 3.39 ERA).<\/p>\n
Leading Off<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n — Pedro Alvarez <\/strong>will now be participating in Mondays All-Star Home Run Derby (8pm, ESPN) due to Carlos Gonzalez pulling out due to a finger injury. He is unsure on who will be throwing to him yet.<\/p>\n Hurdle\u2019s Quotes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n On if Hurdle was happy Pedro is participating in the Derby \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cSure, I was like \u2018Yeah!\u2019 It\u2019s out of our control. I really believe that everything happens for a reason. He wasn\u2019t picked initially for a reason. Everyone got to gyrate and throw their hands up in the air and deal with their angst and all of a sudden, now he\u2019s on. I\u2019m just enjoying the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n On if he will watch the Derby \u2013 <\/strong>\u201cWe will watch. We watched last year because McCutchen was in it. He\u2019s got his number one fan, at least in our household, Mattie is going to have her jersey on. She\u2019ll be ramped up, she\u2019ll be ready to go so, yeah we\u2019ll watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n On the progress of Neil Walker\u2019s injury —<\/strong>\u201cTalked to him yesterday and I think minimal. We won\u2019t know until today to see what he\u2019s capable, physically, to do today. He\u2019s got some time now.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Notes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n — The Pirates acquired 1B\/OF Russ Canzler <\/strong>from the Orioles in exchange for RHP Tim Alderson<\/strong>. Canzler hit .276 (89-for-323) with 15 doubles, one triple, 11 home runs, 49 RBI and 46 runs scored in 86 games this season for Triple-A Norfolk of the International League.<\/p>\n — Starling Marte <\/strong>(103 Hits) and Andrew McCutchen <\/strong>(101 Hits) are the first pair of Pirates to teammates to each register 100 hits before the All-Star break since Omar Moreno <\/strong>and Dave Parker <\/strong>did it in 1979. (Courtesy: Elias)<\/p>\n — The Pirates pitching staff posted their Major League leading 13th<\/sup> shutout Wednesday, the most by the club in one season since 2005 when that team recorded 14 shutouts. It was also the eighth blanking of the season by the Bucco staff at PNC Park, where the club has posted a 2.67 ERA (439.0 IP \/ 130 ER) and a .220 batting average against.<\/p>\n First pitch is set for around 7:05.<\/p>\n Follow Travis for Pirates news and in-game updates on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @ovathletics<\/p>\n (Photo Credit: \u00a0Morry Gash\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PNC Park — The Pirates (54 \u2013 36), fresh off of a 5 \u2013 0 victory against Oakland on Wednesday, are back at PNC to finish the first half off against the Mets (40 \u2013 48) in the first of three starting tonight. Charlie Morton (1 \u2013 2, 3.38 ERA) will face Jeremy Hefner (4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[625,659,616,520,1072,610,377,2221,1225],"class_list":["post-15641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-charlie-morton","tag-clint-hurdle","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-pedro-alvarez","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-russ-canzler","tag-starling-marte"],"yoast_head":"\n