ST. LOUIS — Looking ahead to first pitch …
Game: Pirates (65-46) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (73-40), 7:15 p.m., Busch Stadium
Pitchers: LHP Francisco Liriano (7-6, 3.13) vs. RHP Lance Lynn (9-6, 2.76)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 93.7 The Fan
Online: Gameday | Multimedia | Media notes
Pregame notes 4:43 p.m.: Clint Hurdle clearly has had enough of the first base follies. Aramis Ramirez will begin taking grounders at first this weekend in New York. It’s a position he’s never played, not at any level of the game, which should underscore all the more how the Pirates feel about Pedro Alvarez’s work there. “We’re going to put him over there, just to give some flexibility to him, based on the guys we’re getting back and the defensive alignments we can put out there,” Hurdle said. “There might be an opportunity where he shows us a quick adaptation over there. He’s got good feet. He’s got good hands. How that translates, time will tell. It can’t hurt to take a look at it. There’s nothing that I could come up with when we thought about this other than to say, ‘Why not?’ ” Ramirez sounded amenable: “I want to do whatever it takes. This is my last year, and I told the manager when I got traded here I don’t mind anything. I just want to win. It’s the only thing I’m missing from this game. If I have to go over to first and take some grounders, I don’t mind that.” … Starling Marte is out with what’s been diagnosed as a bruised left hand. He might be available to pinch-hit tonight. That decision will be made closer to first pitch. Hurdle said Marte was hurt Tuesday and that it kept recurring through the two games until enough was enough. … I asked Hurdle if Travis Ishikawa was replacing Marte in left, rather than the superior fielder Gregory Polanco, to keep Polanco where he’s comfortable. “Yes, that’s it,” came the reply. … Sean Rodriguez was put at third, Hurdle continued, to capitalize on Liriano’s propensity for getting grounders to that side. … I asked Neil Walker about the failed double play last night, in which he ran toward the left side of the infield but twisted to throw back the other way. The throw was low, arriving to first on a bounce, and Alvarez couldn’t collect it. “That’s the hardest throw I have to make,” Walker said. “All my momentum is going one way, and you have a hard time getting anything back the other way. The same thing happened in a game right here last year.” That said, he blamed no one but himself: “It’s a play I’ve made before.” … A little looser down there. Not much, but a little. If anyone seemed a bit edgy, it was the manager when discussing the aforementioned follies: “Twenty-some games now, we haven’t played solid defense. How do you expect to win? That’s the way we look at it. External noise, we don’t care about. We need to take care of our game. That’s what we’re focused on doing, not on anyone else’s thoughts or opinions.”
5:37: OK, so the timetable was pushed up. Ramirez is over at first base taking some throws, along with Alvarez right now. Nothing too heavy.
8:15: First pitch, Lynn to Polanco, 83 degrees, cloudy.
7:22: Pirates, 1-0, 1st. Walker triples because he’s from Pittsburgh, and Andrew McCutchen follows that with a double over third base.
7:24: Pirates, 2-0, 1st. Jung Ho Kang’s grounder to third turns into a two-base error when Matt Carpenter sails the ball to Illinois.
7:26: Pirates, 4-0, 1st. Alvarez two-run home run. First-pitch 91-mph flatness right down the pipe, smacked to straightaway center. Wouldn’t appear that Lynn is at his sharpest, hm?
7:29: Nope. Now Francisco Cervelli is hit by a pitch, and Ishikawa singles.
7:33: Pirates, 5-0, 1st. Ha! Now Liriano gets back into the hitting groove with an RBI single to left. And the greatest catcher in human history dropped what should have been a sure out at the plate in the process. Pscyho start to this one.
7:34: Pirates, 6-0, 1st. Polanco single to left-center. This is getting ridiculous. It takes a lot to get people here to boo anything, but they’d begun booing at least a little before Mike Matheny came out of the dugout to get Lynn. Then, of course, they cheered for Lynn on his way off.
Garrett Hartley on for the extra point.
7:37: Pirates, 7-0, 1st. It’s up … and it’s good! Tyler Lyons is greeted by Walker with another RBI single.
7:40: That’s it. Twenty-five minutes later. Sarcastic applause from the sport’s most faithful fans.
7:43: That’s the Pirates’ biggest first inning since scoring nine runs July 20, 2010, against the Brewers. It’s the biggest on the road since June 8, 1989, at Philadelphia, when they scored 10 and Jim Rooker had to walk home across the commonwealth.
7:49: Frankie not exactly following up with the quiet inning a team would like. Cardinals have bases loaded with one out for Yadier Molina.
7:51: Pirates, 7-2, 1st. Molina delivers a two-run single into left-center, but Jason Heyward does something wrong for the team that does everything right and gets tossed out at third by Cutch.
9:07: Alvarez makes an extraordinary effort to dive for a chopper, sweetly corrals it, begins bounding toward the bag … and loses the ball. Honestly, I say this again and again, but it isn’t about effort with him. It just isn’t.
9:11: Pirates, 7-3, 6th. Kolten Wong’s forceout pushes one over.
9:36: Pirates, 7-4, 7th. Jhonny Peralta RBI single makes Rooker nervous. Joakim Soria is out there right now and not looking very settled, either.
9:38: Heyward drops a softie into shallow right, bases are loaded with one out, and that’s it for Soria. In comes Tony Watson an inning early. Big game and all.
9:43: Pirates, 7-5, 7th. Sac fly for Yadi. Big whoop. Watson’s got this.
9:45: Whiff.
10:00: More Watson … yawn.
10:08: Pirates, 8-5, 9th. Walker with another RBI double, this one crushed to right-center. Because he’s from Pittsburgh.
The Cardinals' Peter Bourjos fails to come up with this Neil Walker triple in the first inning. -- GETTY
August 13, 2015
Final: Pirates 10, Cardinals 5
496by Dejan Kovacevic • Game previews • Pirates
ST. LOUIS — Looking ahead to first pitch …
Game: Pirates (65-46) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (73-40), 7:15 p.m., Busch Stadium
Pitchers: LHP Francisco Liriano (7-6, 3.13) vs. RHP Lance Lynn (9-6, 2.76)
TV, radio: Root Sports, 93.7 The Fan
Online: Gameday | Multimedia | Media notes
Pregame notes 4:43 p.m.: Clint Hurdle clearly has had enough of the first base follies. Aramis Ramirez will begin taking grounders at first this weekend in New York. It’s a position he’s never played, not at any level of the game, which should underscore all the more how the Pirates feel about Pedro Alvarez’s work there. “We’re going to put him over there, just to give some flexibility to him, based on the guys we’re getting back and the defensive alignments we can put out there,” Hurdle said. “There might be an opportunity where he shows us a quick adaptation over there. He’s got good feet. He’s got good hands. How that translates, time will tell. It can’t hurt to take a look at it. There’s nothing that I could come up with when we thought about this other than to say, ‘Why not?’ ” Ramirez sounded amenable: “I want to do whatever it takes. This is my last year, and I told the manager when I got traded here I don’t mind anything. I just want to win. It’s the only thing I’m missing from this game. If I have to go over to first and take some grounders, I don’t mind that.” … Starling Marte is out with what’s been diagnosed as a bruised left hand. He might be available to pinch-hit tonight. That decision will be made closer to first pitch. Hurdle said Marte was hurt Tuesday and that it kept recurring through the two games until enough was enough. … I asked Hurdle if Travis Ishikawa was replacing Marte in left, rather than the superior fielder Gregory Polanco, to keep Polanco where he’s comfortable. “Yes, that’s it,” came the reply. … Sean Rodriguez was put at third, Hurdle continued, to capitalize on Liriano’s propensity for getting grounders to that side. … I asked Neil Walker about the failed double play last night, in which he ran toward the left side of the infield but twisted to throw back the other way. The throw was low, arriving to first on a bounce, and Alvarez couldn’t collect it. “That’s the hardest throw I have to make,” Walker said. “All my momentum is going one way, and you have a hard time getting anything back the other way. The same thing happened in a game right here last year.” That said, he blamed no one but himself: “It’s a play I’ve made before.” … A little looser down there. Not much, but a little. If anyone seemed a bit edgy, it was the manager when discussing the aforementioned follies: “Twenty-some games now, we haven’t played solid defense. How do you expect to win? That’s the way we look at it. External noise, we don’t care about. We need to take care of our game. That’s what we’re focused on doing, not on anyone else’s thoughts or opinions.”
5:37: OK, so the timetable was pushed up. Ramirez is over at first base taking some throws, along with Alvarez right now. Nothing too heavy.
8:15: First pitch, Lynn to Polanco, 83 degrees, cloudy.
7:22: Pirates, 1-0, 1st. Walker triples because he’s from Pittsburgh, and Andrew McCutchen follows that with a double over third base.
7:24: Pirates, 2-0, 1st. Jung Ho Kang’s grounder to third turns into a two-base error when Matt Carpenter sails the ball to Illinois.
7:26: Pirates, 4-0, 1st. Alvarez two-run home run. First-pitch 91-mph flatness right down the pipe, smacked to straightaway center. Wouldn’t appear that Lynn is at his sharpest, hm?
7:29: Nope. Now Francisco Cervelli is hit by a pitch, and Ishikawa singles.
7:33: Pirates, 5-0, 1st. Ha! Now Liriano gets back into the hitting groove with an RBI single to left. And the greatest catcher in human history dropped what should have been a sure out at the plate in the process. Pscyho start to this one.
7:34: Pirates, 6-0, 1st. Polanco single to left-center. This is getting ridiculous. It takes a lot to get people here to boo anything, but they’d begun booing at least a little before Mike Matheny came out of the dugout to get Lynn. Then, of course, they cheered for Lynn on his way off.
Garrett Hartley on for the extra point.
7:37: Pirates, 7-0, 1st. It’s up … and it’s good! Tyler Lyons is greeted by Walker with another RBI single.
7:40: That’s it. Twenty-five minutes later. Sarcastic applause from the sport’s most faithful fans.
7:43: That’s the Pirates’ biggest first inning since scoring nine runs July 20, 2010, against the Brewers. It’s the biggest on the road since June 8, 1989, at Philadelphia, when they scored 10 and Jim Rooker had to walk home across the commonwealth.
7:49: Frankie not exactly following up with the quiet inning a team would like. Cardinals have bases loaded with one out for Yadier Molina.
7:51: Pirates, 7-2, 1st. Molina delivers a two-run single into left-center, but Jason Heyward does something wrong for the team that does everything right and gets tossed out at third by Cutch.
9:07: Alvarez makes an extraordinary effort to dive for a chopper, sweetly corrals it, begins bounding toward the bag … and loses the ball. Honestly, I say this again and again, but it isn’t about effort with him. It just isn’t.
9:11: Pirates, 7-3, 6th. Kolten Wong’s forceout pushes one over.
9:36: Pirates, 7-4, 7th. Jhonny Peralta RBI single makes Rooker nervous. Joakim Soria is out there right now and not looking very settled, either.
9:38: Heyward drops a softie into shallow right, bases are loaded with one out, and that’s it for Soria. In comes Tony Watson an inning early. Big game and all.
9:43: Pirates, 7-5, 7th. Sac fly for Yadi. Big whoop. Watson’s got this.
9:45: Whiff.
10:00: More Watson … yawn.
10:08: Pirates, 8-5, 9th. Walker with another RBI double, this one crushed to right-center. Because he’s from Pittsburgh.