Pittsburgh Pirates / MLB category, Page 266
Pirates’ Neal Huntington in balancing act as trade deadline approaches
Stop if you’ve heard this before. Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington is walking a tricky line of weighing options with an inconsistent team in the race for the postseason. Huntington is in his fourth consecutive mid-summer that scenario. His team entered the final day before the All-Star break 3½...
Jon Schwind, Josh Bell’s Home Run Derby pitcher, hopes to find sweet spot
Jon Schwind is hoping to be the perfect pitcher for Josh Bell, which is to say he hopes to repeatedly find the sweet spot on Bell’s bat Monday in the Home Run Derby. As a former roommate and teammate of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ All-Star first baseman who has 27 home...
Pirates set post-All-Star break rotation for series vs. Cubs
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is getting away from baseball over the All-Star break this week. So he made sure to set the starting rotation for his team’s upcoming games Sunday. Chris Archer, Jordan Lyles and Trevor Williams will start games during an important three-game series at the Chicago Cubs...
Cue ‘Seinfeld’ jokes: Pirates recall Kevin Kramer, who joins Newman
Kevin Kramer was born just as “Seinfeld” was beginning to become a 1990s cultural phenomenon, and he was 4 years old when its final episode aired. But with his last name, even if Kramer didn’t watch the TV show, he certainly is aware of it. And that became even more...
How Pirates’ Josh Bell stacks up in Home Run Derby bracket
Forget the title chase in the National League Central. Set aside whatever you might think of the Pittsburgh Pirates roster and how it was constructed by a fiscally aware owner. For the next two days, let’s concentrate on how Josh Bell stacks up against the game’s greatest sluggers before taking...
Brewers’ Orlando Arcia being evaluated after collision against Pirates
Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia still was being evaluated after a collision with second baseman Keston Hiura during Saturday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. The two ran into each other while converging on a ground ball hit by Colin Moran in the eighth inning. Arcia stayed...
Pirates’ Corey Dickerson injures groin, awaits diagnosis
The only negative moment of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 12-2 victory Saturday night against the Milwaukee Brewers was left fielder Corey Dickerson’s groin injury that forced him from the game in the seventh inning. He injured it while catching a routine fly ball. “I felt something weird in my groin area,”...
Dario Agrazal, bats prop up Pirates in victory against BrewersVideo
Dario Agrazal and Kevin Newman were not starters coming out of spring training. Agrazal was headed to Altoona, a Double-A team, after he had been designated for assignment in January and unclaimed by every other team. He was in Bradenton, Fla., with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but without a spot on...
Best case for Pirates’ Steven Brault: He could miss only one start
When Steven Brault was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday, he took the news with his usual good nature, aware that pitching professionally puts uncommon stress on arms and shoulders. “It’s something that’s going to happen,” Brault said of his left shoulder strain. “We throw baseballs as hard as...
Pirates’ Felipe Vazquez added to NL All-Star roster to replace Zack Greinke
The first thing Felipe Vazquez did when he found out he was a late pick for the All-Star Game was call Seven Springs. Because he wasn’t picked initially, he had planned to take several family members for a getaway. “When Clint (Hurdle) told me, I had to cancel everything,” he...
Luis Escobar, Pirates’ No. 2 pitching prospect, gets first call-up
Luis Escobar Sr. quickly forgot about the dominoes game. Luis Jr. was calling from the United States with the news every father of a promising baseball player yearns to hear: His son was going to the big leagues. “When I called my father, he was in the midst of playing...
8 memorable Pirates moments at MLB All-Star games
Monday and Tuesday, Pittsburgh Pirates fans have a player who legitimately puts the “Star” in All-Star to cheer on during the festivities surrounding Major League Baseball’s midsummer classic. That isn’t always the case. From the likes of Evan Meek to Ed Sprague to Carlos Garcia to Mike Williams (the latter,...
Kevin Gorman: Pirates can only hope Jameson Taillon finds gold at end of rainbow
Jameson Taillon had to get a grasp of his injury then get a grip. If the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander is going to pitch again this season, he first has to pick up a baseball. That’s how far along Taillon is two months into his road to recovery from a right...
Pirates rally in the 9th inning, lose to Brewers in the 10thVideo
When the starting pitcher leaves early with an injury and two relievers allow three homers and five runs, a loss can’t be far behind. In the case of the Pittsburgh Pirates, however, you never know. Down by five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to the Milwaukee Brewers...
Pirates farm report for July 5, 2019
INDIANAPOLIS (Triple-A, 44-42) swept Toledo (Tigers) in a doubleheader. The Indians won Game 1, 4-3. DH Gregory Polanco (.333) was 1 for 3 with a first-inning, two-run home run. It was Polanco’s second game in his rehab assignment since being placed on the 10-day injured list June 22 with posterior...
Pirates will place Trevor Williams on paternity list, give start to Dario Agarzal
Trevor Williams will be placed on MLB’s paternity list Saturday and won’t make his scheduled start for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Milwaukee Brewers. Instead, Dario Agarzal will make his third career start after his recall from Triple-A Indianapolis. Agarzal (1-0) has allowed only three earned runs in 10 innings...
Pirates notebook: Team hopes Kevin Newman can provide punch near bottom of the order
The Pittsburgh Pirates opened their three-game series with the first-place Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night with an interesting starting lineup. All nine players, including starting pitcher Steven Brault (.350 in 20 at-bats), were hitting at least .275. And manager Clint Hurdle was so sure of his lineup’s productivity, he felt...
Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez unconcerned with All-Star snub
Felipe Vazquez spent more time trying to get a teammate elected as an All-Star Game starter than he did worrying why he was snubbed. Vazquez, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ closer, and starting pitcher Joe Musgrove went around the city, hoping to convince people to vote for Josh Bell as the National...
Amid recovery, Jameson Taillon says he plans to pitch again this season for Pirates
Jameson Taillon said he plans to pitch again this season, but the Pittsburgh Pirates ace first has to throw. Taillon’s road to recovery will take a big step this weekend, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said, when the 27-year-old right-hander plays catch for the first time since going on the injured...
Look out, boaters, when Brewers’ Christian Yelich, Pirates’ Josh Bell come to bat
Before the Milwaukee Brewers met the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Friday night, Christian Yelich took aim at the Allegheny River. Hitting off batting practice pitcher Pat Shine, Yelich was preparing for the Home Run Derby on Monday in Cleveland. Christian Yelich did a practice round for the Home...
In wake of Maddon-Hurdle, recalling coaching confrontations in Pittsburgh sports history
Perhaps nothing would have happened had Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon been free to charge the Pittsburgh Pirates dugout during the teams’ Fourth of July blow-up. But Maddon was visibly angry that Pirates pitcher Jordan Lyles was throwing high and inside to his batters, and Clint Hurdle did not back...
MLB Network spotlights Pirates as force to be reckoned with in NL Central
“Let’s get on the Pirate ship” indeed. MLB Network’s Mark DeRosa seems to be pretty confident in the Pittsburgh Pirates. In a segment that aired Friday morning on the network’s morning show, “MLB Central,” the former journeyman utility player outlined all of the reasons the Pirates should be able to...
Pirates, Jordan Lyles pounded in series finale vs. Cubs
It is difficult to gauge what was most explosive in Pittsburgh on this Fourth of July: the annual fireworks, Joe Maddon’s temper or the Chicago Cubs offense. The Cubs tagged Jordan Lyles and reliever Clay Holmes for four home runs and nine extra-base hits in avoiding a four-game sweep by...
Cubs’ Joe Maddon ejected, restrained in confronting Pirates’ Clint Hurdle
With the Pittsburgh Pirates going for a four-game sweep, things apparently reached a boiling point for Chicago Cubs manager Joe Madden on Thursday. Maddon was ejected during the top of the fourth inning of the Fourth of July game at PNC Park, and the veteran manager stormed out of the...
Pirates notebook: Clint Hurdle to ‘unplug’ during All-Star break
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle refuses to spend his All-Star break conducting a big-picture midseason evaluation. “I’ll unplug the whole time,” he said of the three-day break. But that doesn’t mean an all-encompassing look at his team isn’t being done. It’s just taking place a little earlier. “The 50,000-foot evaluation...
