Volquez has a 7.88 ERA in three May starts, not too surprising considering that he's surrendered eight home runs in his last 21-2/3 IP. Edinson hasn't faced Washington much, and hasn't had much luck when he has - he's 1-2 with a 6.64 ERA in four career starts against them. Rookie Treinen will make his second big league start as a replacement for Gio Gonzalez. He was lights out in Triple AAA with a 1.96 ERA, throwing a sinker that touches 98 miles per hour and mixing it with a curve.
Lineup: Josh Harrison RF, Neil Walker 2B, Cutch CF, Pedro 3B, Starling Marte LF, Ike Davis 1B, Jordy Mercer SS, Chris Stewart C and Volquez P. We're surprised Tony Sanchez isn't catching, but he did just catch a 3-1/2 hour game and was the target of 182 pitches.
Washington is 24-22 and is 1-1/2 games behind the Braves in the NL East. They're 5-5 in their past 10 matches
The game starts at 7:05 and will be aired by the MLB Network, Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.
- The Pirates have reinstated Russ Martin from the DL. To make room for Martin, Wandy Rodriguez has been DFA'ed. Martin has to serve his suspension, so he'll be back behind the dish tomorrow. The Bucs are eating a nice hunk of salary by releasing Wandy ($6M or so), but something has to be done to try to turn the season around, and Rodriguez wasn't in next year's plans. With Martin back, Tony Sanchez will likely be shipped back to Indy tomorrow, creating room, we'd assume, for Brandon Cumpton.
- Ike Davis is batting .410 in his last 13 games. In his career, Davis has more home runs (11) and RBI (29) vs. Washington than any other MLB team.
- Tony Sanchez has been up-and-down in his first real stretch of MLB work, but was sharp yesterday. He stopped about a zillion balls that were bounced to plate without allowing any to slip through, and his game-winning knock gave him 17 games out of 21 that he's had a hit.
- The Pirates claimed RHP Josh Wall, 26, off waivers from the Angels and DFA'ed RHP Phil Irwin for assignment. The reliever Wall will be optioned to AAA. He was a second-round pick of the Dodgers back in 2005. Wall's been OK in AAA but bombed in the few innings he's worked in MLB, though he was once highly thought of as a prospect. We'd speculate that Irwin, 27, who is just working his way back from injury, is a candidate to clear waivers and remain with the Pirate organization.
- The Pirates may be struggling, but the hard-working folk selling tickets are having a banner year, per Michael Sanserino of the Post-Gazette.
- Old news, but SS Stephen Drew made his signing with the Red Sox official yesterday for those thinking the FO may still be casting a wide net.
No offense but sending down Tony Sanchez tomorrow and recalling Cumpton would be an dumb move on the Pirates part. The Pirates will play three more games where they don't need a starter so why not take advantage of that and either have Sanchez stick around as a potential pinch hitter or call up another bat or bullpen arm?
ReplyDeleteOh, I'd guess upon review that you're right, David. I hurried the Russ/Wandy moves into the post; the gist is that they'll send down Tony and call up Cumpton sometime between tomorrow and Monday's start.
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