Saturday, June 7, 2014

Volquez v Garza, Lineup, Russ, Josh & The Team En Fuego

Milwaukee's Matt Garza (3-4, 4.42) goes against Edinson Volquez (3-4, 4.25) this afternoon. Eddie has won two of his last three starts, giving up two or dewer runs, and appears back on track. He's been showing mid-nineties velocity in his past couple of outings though command has remained an issue. Volquez has met the Brewers pretty often in his career, going 6-3 with a 4.57 ERA in 14 starts.

Garza, a veteran guy off to a slow start, is coming off his best game of the year when he went 6-1/3 shutout frames against the Twins, featuring a change as his out pitch. Garza's picked up 17 K in his last two outings, a sign that he's starting to find his groove. He's 1-2/4.36 in six starts against the Pirates.

Lineup: Josh Harrison RF, Neil Walker 2B, Cutch CF, Ike Davis 1B, Russ Martin C, Pedro 3B, Jose Tabata LF, Jordy mercer SS and Volquez P.

The game starts at 4:05 and will be broadcast by Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan. Another good crowd is expected to catch the first place Brew Crew and a post-game concert by the Goo Goo Dolls.

  • Pittsburgh is 18-13 (.580) over the last 31 games and on pace for an 86 win season. The team has won four of their last five games and six of their last eight.
  • Last night, Russ Martin became the second Pirate catcher since 1920 (the first season that RBI were recorded) to go 3-for-3 or better with at least three runs scored and four RBI in a game; the other was Ryan Doumit, who went 4-for-4 with three runs and four RBI at Wrigley Field on September 30th, 2009.
  • Josh Harrison will carry a nine-game hitting streak into today’s action.
  • One overlooked fact in the Gregory Polanco debate: RF hasn't been such an abyss in the past month, with JT hitting .372 and Josh .325 over that span.
  • Stolmy Pimentel, who is on the DL with right shoulder inflammation, pitched three scoreless innings in a rehab start for Double-A Altoona last night.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ron,
Ghosts of the lumber company are starting to stir in Bucco land. Happy to see our team looking like they are turning the corner. Great series' in LA and SD though they should have broomed the Friars.

Hard to believe the Catcher stat you put out there today. only the second Bucco receiver to EVER go 3/3 or better with 3 runs and 4 RBI. thats a great line but still !!

JayHey looking great and you may be on to something - the RF platoon has been stellar so why fix it if it isn't broke....GP is the future but would he be playing better than the combo right now

love the blog

CincyBucco

Ron Ieraci said...

Dave - the two big concerns are that 1) they just don't have enough starting depth; it's only June and they've been in turmoil and 2) they don't catch the ball. Jordy and The Kid may be the least athletic middle infield in baseball. Not much sense in stressing ground ball pitchers without an infield that has the range to gobble grounders.

But you're right on about the sticks, and I agree with you that JT and Josh have made it easy on the brass to sit on Polanco.