Pitchers: RHP Jameson Taillon (4-5, 3.94) battles Freddy Peralta. Jamo has given up three or fewer runs eight times in his last nine starts and is beginning to show off more breaking stuff, which is becoming a bit of a recent Bucco MO. He's faced the Brew Crew once this year in May. He gave up a run in five innings, but dodged a lot of gunfire as he gave up six hits and two walks. The 22-year-old Peralta was called up from Colorado Springs, where he was en fuego. The Brewers schedule has been such that they haven't had to call on a fifth starter very much early on, and Peralta apparently will fill that bill until Zach Davies is ready to return to action. In two May starts during his first taste of MLB, he was brilliant against the Rockies (5-2/3 IP, no runs, one hit, 13 whiffs) and then meh against the Twins; his success depends largely on whether he can command his bread-and-butter heater. His second pitch is an OK curve, but he's still searching for that third offering to fill out his toolkit. This will be the Bucs first look at Peralta.
 |
| Jamo on the bump (photo Pittsburgh Pirates) |
Lineup: Josh Harrison 2B, Corey Dickerson LF, Starling Marte CF, Colin Moran 3B, Fran Cervelli C, Josh Bell 1B, Gregory Polanco RF, Jordy SS & Taillon P. AM remains pine-bound; the lineup is the same as yesterdays.
Notes:
- Pittsburgh’s pitching staff shares the MLB lead in shutouts (nine) along with the Cubs. Last night’s victory was the fourth time this season that the Pirates won a game by the score of 1-0, which is the most such victories by the Bucs since 2013 (five).
- Felipe Rivero is climbing the franchise charts in the left-handed closer category. He's recorded 35 saves in his two seasons as the Pittsburgh closer, the third-most by a southpaw pitcher in club history, trailing only Ramon Hernandez (39) and Grant Jackson (36).
- MLB has fined Joe Musgrove $1,000 for intentionally plunking Chris Owings of Arizona last week; J-Grove and the Bucs will appeal.
- Joe Sheehan of Baseball America writes that contending is a choice, and compares Milwaukee's moves to those of the Bucs. Tim Benz of the Trib doubles down on that concept.
- Gary Livacari of Baseball History Comes Alive posted a great photo album of the 1960 World Series Game Seven and closes it out with an interview of the guy who rounded third with Maz after his homer, 71-year-old Ken Simons, who was teen when the shot was taken.
- George Kontos is back in the show; the Indians called him up today after he had recently signed a minor league deal with them and showed well in AAA Columbus.
- Petey Alvarez, 31, had been DFA'ed by the Orioles. He was hitting .180/.283/.414 with eight homers.
Might be the end of the line for Pedro.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can call a guy with 162 career major league home runs "a bust", exactly, but I would say that Alvarez was as poor a player as a guy can possibly be without going all the way down to "bust" territory. Certainly he never remotely lived up to his draft pedigree. Had he managed to become the kind of better than average defender he certainly should have been, I am sure his major league career would have gone better and lasted longer. As it is, I give him credit for sticking with it and for making it back to the bigs with the Orioles after they farmed him out at age 29.
But even so, he just wasn't very good and was definitely a major disappointment.