Yohan Oviedo had thrown 100 pitches and the ballgame was only in the fifth inning, forcing Pirates manager Derek Shelton to go to his bullpen. And for the third straight game, the relief corps failed the Bucs, leading to a Chicago sweep. Joe Block reports.
The Pirates battered bullpen suffered another blow yesterday when setup man Colin Holderman was placed on the injured list with an inflamed right wrist. Yerry De Los Santos was called up from Indianapolis to replace Holderman. After Jose Hernandez gave up two hits and two walks in his one-third of an inning in the fifth, De Los Santos gave up a hit and a walk before finally getting the out to end the inning. He gave up a run in one and one-third innings.
The Pirates are one game over .500 and lead Milwaukee by a half-game in the NL Central. The Reds are just a game back, and the Cubs have pulled to within 3-and-a-half. The Bucs move on to Milwaukee to face the second-place Brewers tonight in the opener of a three-game series. Lefty Rich Hill [6-5, 4.23 ERA] pitches for the Pirates against the Brewers’ Julio Teheran [1-2, 1.48 ERA]. Teheran was a star for the Braves before he injured his shoulder. He returned to MLB on May 25th, pitching for the Brewers in his first game in two years, just two hours after signing a contract. This will be his fourth start. It’s an 8:10 first pitch, 7:45 airtime on WCCS.
ALTOONA CURVE
Like their big league counterparts, the Altoona bullpen failed them last night as the Curve lost their third straight game to Somerset, 6-3. Starter Aaron Shortridge threw six shutout innings, but reliever Cameron Junker gave up four runs on two hits and four walks in one inning of work. Liover Peguero had two hits including his 8th home run and Matt Gorski had two hits and stole three bases.
The Curve have not announced their starter for tonight’s fourth game of the series.
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