The Pirates finally found their offense last night after it had been missing for much of June. Joe Block recaps a big Bucs win.
There’s a good pitching matchup for tonight’s second game of the series. Mitch Keller [8-3, 3.45 ERA] throws for the Pirates against the Padres’ Blake Snell [4-6, 3.22 ERA]. It’s a 6:40 airtime, a 7:05 first pitch on WCCS.
With reports of teams approaching the Pirates about the availability of Andrew McCutchen, the veteran left no doubt about where he wants to play yesterday. He wants to stay in Pittsburgh. While he said a trade is not in his control, his preference is to stay and win in Pittsburgh. The Texas Rangers are among the teams that have reportedly asked about a trade for McCutchen, who had three hits last night and has lifted his batting average to .278 with nine home runs.
On the injury front, reliever Colin Holderman threw a 25-pitch bullpen session yesterday and said afterward he felt good. He was placed on the 15-day injured list on June 15th with right wrist inflammation.
MLB Pipeline updated its Top 250 Draft Board yesterday and LSU pitcher Paul Skenes has overtaken his teammate, outfielder Dylan Crews for the top spot. That may be a good sign for the Pirates, since Crews is represented by notorious agent Scott Boras, and according to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, Boras has been signaling that Crews is “not interested” in playing for the Pirates because of money. Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford is ranked third, followed by high school outfielders Walker Jenkins and Max Clark.
The Pirates have the top overall selection in the draft. Rounds one and two will be held July 9th, during the All-Star festivities in Seattle.
ALTOONA CURVE
Altoona opens a six-game series in Harrisburg tonight, kicking off the second half of the season with a 34-34 record.
Making the start for the Curve tonight will be right-hander Braxton Ashcraft, a second round draft pick in 2018 whose career has been interrupted by the loss of the 2020 season due to the pandemic, and by Tommy John surgery in 2021. He started well at Greensboro this season and made his first start for Altoona last Wednesday, pitching three innings and allowing one unearned run on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
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