Game: Pirates (40-32) vs. Atlanta Braves (35-38), 7:05 p.m., PNC Park
Pitchers: LHP Francisco Liriano (4-6, 3.26) vs. RHP Williams Perez (4-0, 2.78)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 93.7 The Fan
Online: Gameday / Multimedia / Media notes
UPDATE 3:09 p.m.: The Pirates have promoted right-handed reliever Deolis Guerra from Class AAA Indianapolis. A corresponding move still must be made. Expecting that any minute. Guerra, 26, has been in the minors for a decade, but his first call to the bigs is richly deserved: He had a 1.23 ERA, a 0.79 WHIP, a .165 opponents’ batting average, 37 strikeouts and eight walks — one of those intentional — in 25 appearances this season. He didn’t allow a run in his final 11 appearances, a span of 13 2/3 innings. Wow.
Pregame notes 4:11 p.m.: Room for Guerra on the 25-man roster will be created by the most predictable move of all: Rob Scahill on the 15-day disabled list because of tightness in the forearm that he apparently experienced after the 13th inning early this morning, one in which he gave up a Brandon Phillips home run. Phenomenal stuff there, huh? Scahill has a 2.08 ERA, but that barely masks that he’s been terrible of late — 10 runs and 14 hits in his past 11 appearances — and flat-out cost the Pirates three games. Whether the trauma is real or not … well, whatever. Candidly, it’s impossible to imagine how he’s fine to take the ball one night, has nothing at all visible happen to him during the outing, then comes in clutching his arm the next day. … Room on the 40-man for Guerra was made by moving Andrew Lambo from the 15-day to the 60-day DL. … Gregory Polanco is back down to seventh in the order, Jordy Mercer up to sixth, Pedro Alvarez up to fifth. If all of that combined doesn’t alarm anyone in management, for one reason or another, that would be alarming in and of itself. And this is to say nothing of still-searching Neil Walker bumped up to second. … On the wrong end of the commonwealth, some great news for a great guy with Pete Mackanin becoming the Phillies’ interim manager after Ryne Sandberg’s get-me-the-heck-out-of-here resignation today. Mackanin has always reminded me of Jeff Banister in that both always felt way overqualified for the positions they held. Here’s hoping Philadelphia offers him a real chance. He sure won’t fold the way Sandberg did.
7:08: First pitch, Liriano to Jace Peterson, 77 degrees, cloudy. Not a sellout. Four full sections wide open. A little surprising on a Friday night in June.
7:55: Wholly nondescript game on a rather blah evening so far.
And yeah, it’s that last sentence right there for which you shrewdly invested your nickel for the day. Because that was totally worth the price.
Really, other than Liriano walking the No. 8 hitter to score a run in the second, nothing at all of note has happened. It’s pretty clear, though, from this series and the recent one in Atlanta, that the Braves have at least a couple of promising young pitchers, and Perez here happens to be one of them. Really poised.
8:18: OK, so, about nothing interesting going on … Polanco hasn’t had a very season of baserunning, but he might have outdone himself by running full-tilt to an occupied third base just now. This followed Andrelton Simmons making a ridiculous, run-preventing stop on a bouncer to the hole by Chris Stewart. Everyone was set to be safe and bases loaded, but Polanco … I don’t know, he just kept running from second to third. And was tagged out. Wow.
8:26: The franchise needs a first baseman.
8:30: Ouch! Josh Harrison lines a ball hard off Perez, and he’s down. Apparently got him in the ankle, but it looks severe.
8:34: Can’t say I expected a pitcher who lay face down for three minutes to stay in the game, but Perez is doing exactly that.
8:39: Perez comes way in on Andrew McCutchen, hits him and draws the wrath of the crowd. Hard to imagine it was remotely intentional under the circumstance. Either way, he’s done.
8:51: Pirates, 2-1. The existing first baseman drops a broken-bat, two-run single into center.
8:58: 2-2. Juan Uribe takes Liriano over the center-field fence. Solo shot. Coincidence or not, last time was up, the in-game entertainment inadvertently played that chicken sound that usually is triggered only for an intentional walk. Maybe he was mad?
9:52: Jung Ho Kang walks, takes second on a throwing error … and Neil Walker gets what looked like it would be an infield single to third, but Kang is called out after an over-slide.
What’s with all the over-sliding?
We might be headed to extras — and need I remind, the Pirates are 2-7 in that context — but the umps have called for a review of their own work here.
9:57: Nope. Heading to the 10th.
10:05: Mark Melancon keeps it clean, three outs around a two-out walk.
10:09: Jason Grilli gets booed. Pretty loudly.
10:10: Cutch welcomes Grilli back the way most of these guys would probably want to welcome him back, with a lasered book-rule double to left to open the 10th. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.
10:17: Mercer launches an RBI double off the Clemente Wall. Ball game. Grilli loses.
Waiting to buy tickets at the General Robinson Street box office. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC
June 26, 2015
Final: Pirates 3, Braves 2, 10 innings
by Dejan Kovacevic • Game previews
Game: Pirates (40-32) vs. Atlanta Braves (35-38), 7:05 p.m., PNC Park
Pitchers: LHP Francisco Liriano (4-6, 3.26) vs. RHP Williams Perez (4-0, 2.78)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 93.7 The Fan
Online: Gameday / Multimedia / Media notes
UPDATE 3:09 p.m.: The Pirates have promoted right-handed reliever Deolis Guerra from Class AAA Indianapolis. A corresponding move still must be made. Expecting that any minute. Guerra, 26, has been in the minors for a decade, but his first call to the bigs is richly deserved: He had a 1.23 ERA, a 0.79 WHIP, a .165 opponents’ batting average, 37 strikeouts and eight walks — one of those intentional — in 25 appearances this season. He didn’t allow a run in his final 11 appearances, a span of 13 2/3 innings. Wow.
Pregame notes 4:11 p.m.: Room for Guerra on the 25-man roster will be created by the most predictable move of all: Rob Scahill on the 15-day disabled list because of tightness in the forearm that he apparently experienced after the 13th inning early this morning, one in which he gave up a Brandon Phillips home run. Phenomenal stuff there, huh? Scahill has a 2.08 ERA, but that barely masks that he’s been terrible of late — 10 runs and 14 hits in his past 11 appearances — and flat-out cost the Pirates three games. Whether the trauma is real or not … well, whatever. Candidly, it’s impossible to imagine how he’s fine to take the ball one night, has nothing at all visible happen to him during the outing, then comes in clutching his arm the next day. … Room on the 40-man for Guerra was made by moving Andrew Lambo from the 15-day to the 60-day DL. … Gregory Polanco is back down to seventh in the order, Jordy Mercer up to sixth, Pedro Alvarez up to fifth. If all of that combined doesn’t alarm anyone in management, for one reason or another, that would be alarming in and of itself. And this is to say nothing of still-searching Neil Walker bumped up to second. … On the wrong end of the commonwealth, some great news for a great guy with Pete Mackanin becoming the Phillies’ interim manager after Ryne Sandberg’s get-me-the-heck-out-of-here resignation today. Mackanin has always reminded me of Jeff Banister in that both always felt way overqualified for the positions they held. Here’s hoping Philadelphia offers him a real chance. He sure won’t fold the way Sandberg did.
7:08: First pitch, Liriano to Jace Peterson, 77 degrees, cloudy. Not a sellout. Four full sections wide open. A little surprising on a Friday night in June.
7:55: Wholly nondescript game on a rather blah evening so far.
And yeah, it’s that last sentence right there for which you shrewdly invested your nickel for the day. Because that was totally worth the price.
Really, other than Liriano walking the No. 8 hitter to score a run in the second, nothing at all of note has happened. It’s pretty clear, though, from this series and the recent one in Atlanta, that the Braves have at least a couple of promising young pitchers, and Perez here happens to be one of them. Really poised.
8:18: OK, so, about nothing interesting going on … Polanco hasn’t had a very season of baserunning, but he might have outdone himself by running full-tilt to an occupied third base just now. This followed Andrelton Simmons making a ridiculous, run-preventing stop on a bouncer to the hole by Chris Stewart. Everyone was set to be safe and bases loaded, but Polanco … I don’t know, he just kept running from second to third. And was tagged out. Wow.
8:26: The franchise needs a first baseman.
8:30: Ouch! Josh Harrison lines a ball hard off Perez, and he’s down. Apparently got him in the ankle, but it looks severe.
8:34: Can’t say I expected a pitcher who lay face down for three minutes to stay in the game, but Perez is doing exactly that.
8:39: Perez comes way in on Andrew McCutchen, hits him and draws the wrath of the crowd. Hard to imagine it was remotely intentional under the circumstance. Either way, he’s done.
8:51: Pirates, 2-1. The existing first baseman drops a broken-bat, two-run single into center.
8:58: 2-2. Juan Uribe takes Liriano over the center-field fence. Solo shot. Coincidence or not, last time was up, the in-game entertainment inadvertently played that chicken sound that usually is triggered only for an intentional walk. Maybe he was mad?
9:52: Jung Ho Kang walks, takes second on a throwing error … and Neil Walker gets what looked like it would be an infield single to third, but Kang is called out after an over-slide.
What’s with all the over-sliding?
We might be headed to extras — and need I remind, the Pirates are 2-7 in that context — but the umps have called for a review of their own work here.
9:57: Nope. Heading to the 10th.
10:05: Mark Melancon keeps it clean, three outs around a two-out walk.
10:09: Jason Grilli gets booed. Pretty loudly.
10:10: Cutch welcomes Grilli back the way most of these guys would probably want to welcome him back, with a lasered book-rule double to left to open the 10th. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.
10:17: Mercer launches an RBI double off the Clemente Wall. Ball game. Grilli loses.
Waiting to buy tickets at the General Robinson Street box office. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC