IGT 06/27 Metros at Buccos

[Guest d'Kong76]

NY Mets at Pittsburgh
When: 7:05 PM ET, Friday, June 27, 2014
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
SportsDirect Inc.

The Pittsburgh Pirates can move two games above .500 for the first time in 2 1/2 months when they host the New York Mets on Friday night in the second contest of a four-game series. Rookie Gregory Polanco, who homered and had four RBIs in the series opener, has hit safely in 14 of 16 games since he was called up from the minors. "It's a good time for him to be included on our club and he's obviously making a difference since he's been up here," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.

Pittsburgh has won five of six and still has nine games remaining against three sub-.500 clubs on its 10-game homestand as it attempts to make up ground in the National League Central. New York also had won five of six and appeared to be turning a corner before dropping its last two games to Oakland and the Pirates. A pair of promising rookie pitchers will square off with New York's Jacob deGrom opposing Pirates right-hander Brandon Cumpton.

TV:
7:05 p.m. ET, SNY (New York), ROOT (Pittsburgh)

PITCHING MATCHUP:
Mets RH Jacob deGrom (1-4, 3.75 ERA) vs. Pirates RH Brandon Cumpton (3-2, 4.93)

DeGrom finally broke into the win column in his eighth major-league start, tossing seven scoreless innings of five-hit ball in a 4-0 win at Miami on Saturday. That performance followed the worst outing of deGrom's brief career, when he was shelled for six runs on 12 hits in a 6-2 loss at St. Louis. DeGrom blanked Pittsburgh on five hits over 6 2/3 innings on May 26, a start in which he issued a career-high five walks.

Cumpton is also coming off a stellar effort, limiting the Chicago Cubs to two hits over seven scoreless innings on Sunday. It matched the longest outing of the season for the former Georgia Tech product, who has surrendered only one homer in 52 1/3 innings this season. Cumpton also pitched well against deGrom and the Mets in New York last month, giving up two runs (one earned) over seven innings.

WALK-OFFS:
1. Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen has six RBIs during a six-game hitting streak.
2. Mets 3B David Wright has hit safely in 10 consecutive games.
3. Pirates 3B Pedro Alvarez collected three hits in the series opener and was 2-for-3 against deGrom last month.

[Vic Sage]

When Ike was traded to Pitt, he had an OPS with the Mets of .742. Now, it's down to .735.
As for Duda, he had an OPS of .841 before the trade, and now it's down to .828.
So neither of them (nor their teams) have benefited much from the trade quite yet, but Duda has still been the more productive hitter overall.

[Vic Sage]

I'm hoping to see Nieuenheis in the lineup tonight. Also, with DeGrom pitching, I'd like to see Terry hitting him in the 8th spot again. Something like this:

Granderson
Murphy
Wright
Duda
Lagares
Nieuenheis
d'Arnaud
DeGrom
Tejada

[Ceetar]

Granderson-9
Murphy-4
Wright-5
Duda-3
CYoung-7
Lagares-8
Tejada-6
d�Arnaud-2
deGrom-1

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Uh oh. Wright scratched with shoulder soreness on way to ny for mri.

[Frayed Knot]

Wright told reporters he originally injured his shoulder a few weeks ago sliding headfirst, and then hurt it again twice during Thursday�s game.

Revised lineup:
1. Curtis Granderson � RF
2. Ruben Tejada � SS
3. Daniel Murphy � 2B
4. Lucas Duda � 1B
5. Chris Young � LF
6. Eric Campbell � 3B
7. Juan Lagares � CF
8. Travis d�Arnaud � C
9. Jacob deGrom - RHP

[Frayed Knot]

Pirates pull off a 'change of scenery' deal prior to tonight's game with the Angels, swapping one-time closers who had recently lost those positions - sending Jason Grilli to Anaheim in exchange for Ernesto Fieri.
Grilli had recently been told the Buccos were handing the closing job to Mark Melancon and Fieri had lost, at least partially, the Angel's closing job to one-time NYM side-armin' Joe Smith

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Howzabout that "middle" of the lineup?

Duda first-pitch-swinging, no less.

[Frayed Knot]

Duda's 2-RBI single past Ike opens the scoring in the 4th and clearly proves that the Mets got the better of the 1B-man swap.

[MFS62]

Climbing up on my soap box.
Isn't there ANY communication in this organization? Doesn't the major league team read the reports submitted my their minor league managers? Don't they read the stats?
Over the years, I've followed the box scores of my kid, Lagares, and he has hit about 50 points HIGHER when batting in the top half of the order.

Climbing down, now.


Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

You have a link to those numbers, MFS? That sounds curious.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

And Russell Martin's leg whip on Ruben to stuff the DP bears fruit... with a hit from the #8 slot. Blech.

[Frayed Knot]

And all this because deGrom failed to cover 1st base.

[Frayed Knot]

MFS62 wrote: Climbing up on my soap box. Isn't there ANY communication in this organization? Doesn't the major league team read the reports submitted my their minor league managers? Don't they read the stats? Over the years, I've followed the box scores of my kid, Lagares, and he has hit about 50 points HIGHER when batting in the top half of the order. Climbing down, now.

But do you really think that there's a cause and effect thing with lineup position?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: And all this because deGrom failed to cover 1st base.

If the look on his punim as he gets ready to bat is any indication, I have a feeling deGrom gets it.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: MFS62 wrote: Climbing up on my soap box. Isn't there ANY communication in this organization? Doesn't the major league team read the reports submitted my their minor league managers? Don't they read the stats? Over the years, I've followed the box scores of my kid, Lagares, and he has hit about 50 points HIGHER when batting in the top half of the order. Climbing down, now. But do you really think that there's a cause and effect thing with lineup position?

No link, based on reading the boxes. I think when he is up in the order, he realizes his role is to get on base and he concentrates on being selective. When batting lower, he tries to hit for power more, with OBP a secondary consideration. As I said, just an observation, but I exchanged some notes last year with the minor league maven from Mets Inside Pitch and he supported what I had suspected from what he had observed in games. Again, observation only.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

There may well be stats that show him better higher up in the lineup than lower. But that still doesn't mean there's a cause and effect thing going on, particularly since he's just now getting to the point where he's got a full season's worth of ML stats under his belt. I wouldn't base much of a conclusion on that kind of sample size.

[Frayed Knot]

How many times is this shift against Pedro Alvarez going to backfire before we stop using it?

[Frayed Knot]

I don't know exactly how this one is going to end but, however it does, I don't think I'm going to like it.

[Frayed Knot]

Free Baseball!!

[MFS62]

Free Wilmer Flores.

Later

[Lefty Specialist]

Night after night, this team leaves itself absolutely no margin for error.

[Frayed Knot]

Our thrown out on the base paths count for today is two (so far anyway).

[Frayed Knot]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Night after night, this team leaves itself absolutely no margin for error.

And that's how you wind up seven games below .500 with a positive (+1) RS/RA ratio

[Guest d'Kong76]

Waste of a review ... seriously?

[Guest d'Kong76]

Drama ... he was ON THE GRASS!!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

jesus

[Frayed Knot]

I think you can say that Harrison here tried a bit harder to get out of the rundown than did Chris Young earlier.
I mean he was four feet out of the baseline, but if you're Tejada you can't assume you're going to get that call.

[Frayed Knot]

Frayed Knot wrote: I don't know exactly how this one is going to end but, however it does, I don't think I'm going to like it.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Listen to Josh's radio call of this stupid play when you get a chance.