Thursday, August 27, 2015

Cole Train v Justin Nicolino; Lineup & Notes

Today's Game - Gerrit Cole (14-7, 2.49) closes out the trip against southpaw Justin Nicolino (2-1, 3.77). The Cole Train is due. He's been up and down this month, but deserves to have a win or two, something he hasn't picked up since July 26th (and hasn't won on the road since mid-June). He's faced the Fish three times, once this year and twice last season, and is 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA in those starts. Gerrit gave up a pair of solo home runs while winning a 5-2 decision at PNC Park on May 27th. In 2014, he lost 3-2 to Jose Fernandez, along with a no-decision.

27 year old rookie Nicolino had a nice outing against the Phils last time on the hill, and has a rep as a contact pitcher, pulling a fastball, cutter and change from his toolkit. Pittsburgh has had its share of problems against change up tossers, so this could be an interesting match. The game starts at 7:10 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.


This is like the anti-lefty lineup; Gregory, Pedro and The Kid are all in the order while JHK (who oddly enough hits righties better than lefties) is sitting. Nicolino has a normal split and is murder on lefties, with a .194 OBA, but we're sure Clint has a method behind his madness...kinda sure, anyway.
  • Cutch has hit at least 20 home runs in five consecutive seasons, becoming the first Pirate to do so since Jason Bay from 2004-08. The only other players in Pirates history to hit 20 + home runs in five consecutive seasons are Willie Stargell (13 years - 1963 to 1976), Ralph Kiner (seven years - 1946 to 1952) and Frank Thomas (six seasons - 1953 to 1958). 
  • Andrew is in one of his zones: he has multiple hits in four straight games and in five of his last six contests.
  • Joe Blanton extended his scoreless streak to 15-1/3 innings, the fourth-longest active streak in the majors behind Toronto's Brett Cecil (18-1/3 IP), pen mate Arquimedes Caminero (16 IP) and Houston's Tony Sipp (16 IP).
  • Miami trails the season series by a 1-5 tally and are just 6-17 against the Pirates since moving to Miami.
  • Anthony Castrovince put together his list of theMLB's Top Ten managers, and Clint's on it.  Of course, so are Mike Matheny and Joe Maddon, and both ahead of our skipper.

No comments:

Post a Comment