Pirates/MLB category, Page 215
Pirates hope momentum from win streak carries onto the road
Ben Cherington believes his team is ready to play 15 games in the next 13 days. But the Pittsburgh Pirates general manager knows it is a grueling stretch, especially for a team that loses another player to injury nearly every day. One day, it’s Phillip Evans’ broken jaw. Then, Joe...
Tim Benz: One thing needs to be found in an otherwise lost Pirates season
In a season gone this wrong for the Pittsburgh Pirates, at least one thing needs to get right. Perhaps it started to happen this past weekend. The Pirates’ 5-4 win Sunday afternoon at PNC Park completed a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. They scored 24 runs in three days....
Gregory Polanco’s home run in 8th inning leads Pirates to sweep of Brewers
Gregory Polanco never said he planned to hit the winning home run Sunday. All he did was turn to teammate Jose Osuna and say, “Watch, I’m about to hit this ball really hard.” He simply carried through with that promise. The fact the ball sailed over the wall in right...
Pirates hope Nick Tropeano can help in long relief, possibly in rotation
The Pittsburgh Pirates hope the addition of right-handed pitcher Nick Tropeano on Sunday can pay dividends in long relief or in the starting rotation. Tropeano had been in the Pirates’ alternate training site in Altoona before he was called up Sunday before the game with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Pirates...
Cole Tucker’s outfield glove story is as good as gold — or platinum, depending on the day
By Cole Tucker’s count, he’s only 34 days into his career as a center fielder but that hasn’t stopped him from wearing a Platinum Glove one day or a Gold Glove the next. When the Pittsburgh Pirates approached the shortstop about playing the outfield for the first time, there was...
Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: Gregory Polanco snapping out of slump helps Pirates exhale
Before he broke out of his slump, Gregory Polanco heard about it every day. In the batting cage, from Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach Rick Eckstein. Or in the office of Pirates manager Derek Shelton. They saw hard contact and believed Polanco would start hitting. And they wanted him to see...
‘Burgh’s Best to Wear It, No. 8: Before he hit all those home runs, Willie Stargell stared down bigotry
In his major league debut, Willie Stargell was upstaged by a 5-foot-8 catcher, but Stargell went on to seize the spotlight for the next 20 years. Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an 18-year-old amateur free agent in 1958 for a reported bonus of $1,500, Stargell bounced from Roswell, N.M.,...
Gregory Polanco snaps out of slump as Pirates pound Brewers for 2nd straight win
Derek Shelton predicted that Gregory Polanco’s bat was coming around. The Pittsburgh Pirates manager saw something special in the right fielder in spite of his low batting average and high strikeout rate. Shelton believed Polanco was too healthy and too talented for his struggles to continue, and the hard hits...
How the Pirates pitchers fighting for 1 spot became four-fifths of starting rotation
Derek Holland can be candid to a fault, so the Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander didn’t hesitate to call 2020 a circus, from the shutdown of spring training to what he calls Camp Covid to a shortened 60-game season interrupted by postponements. That has made this season something of a juggling act...
Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: A web gem, bunt single make for a Kuhl victory for the PiratesVideo
There are dates that Chad Kuhl remembers and dates he can’t forget, so there is a huge difference in his memory between June 15 and June 25 on the 2018 calendar year. But both became significant on Friday night, when Kuhl pitched five innings and registered his first victory in...
‘Burgh’s Best to Wear It, No. 9: Bill Mazeroski provided legendary homer, glove for PiratesVideo
The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number. No. 9: Bill Mazeroski With the exception of games played (twice) and intentional walks (mostly a function of batting eighth in the order in 1962),...
Bryan Reynolds’ four-RBI night helps Pirates snap four-game losing streak, beat Brewers
For a team that was offensively scuffling, Derek Shelton sure was confident the Pittsburgh Pirates would rediscover the timing on their swings sometime soon. The rookie manager preached patience and positivity while predicting that the hard-hit balls by struggling hitters such as Bryan Reynolds eventually would pay off. Reynolds went...
MLB announces that Pirates, Reds will make up postponed games with pair of doubleheaders
The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds will make up their two games postponed last weekend with a pair of doubleheaders on separate dates in September, MLB announced on Friday. The games, originally scheduled for Aug. 15-16 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, were postponed after a Reds player tested...
Pirates GM Ben Cherington already listening to trade talk, says no players are off limits
With the MLB trade deadline 10 days away, Ben Cherington made it clear the Pittsburgh Pirates are active in trade talks, and no one in the organization is untouchable. Cherington is approaching his first trade deadline as Pirates general manager with the mindset of making the club stronger for the...
Kevin Gorman’s Take 5: It’s really bad when Shane Bieber has more wins than the Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t decide which was worse, how Shane Bieber blanked them in a 2-0 win or that the Cleveland Indians right-hander has more wins this season (five) than they do (four). But who’s counting? The Pirates (4-17) not only have the worst record in baseball but the worst...
Struggling Pirates no match for Shane Bieber, Indians
With a struggling offense and several starters sitting out, the last thing the Pittsburgh Pirates needed was to face one of baseball’s best pitchers. Shane Bieber showed no mercy. The right-hander had 11 strikeouts in six scoreless innings, as the Cleveland Indians beat the Pirates, 2-0, on Thursday night at...
Judge again denies bail for jailed Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez
The offered sale of a $5 million Florida home as collateral to ensure future court appearances of suspended Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez was not enough to convince a judge to release him from jail. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears on Thursday rejected a second request for...
Pirates president Travis Williams tests positive for covid-19
Pittsburgh Pirates president Travis Williams tested positive for covid-19, he announced Thursday in a statement. Williams said the team has conducted contact tracing, and he wasn’t around any players or members of the coaching staff or baseball operations because the Pirates were in Cincinnati last week. The Pirates had three...
‘Burgh’s Best to Wear it, No. 11: Pirates’ Paul Waner collected 3,152 hits, turned down 3,000thVideo
Paul Waner could hit a baseball better than most men who came before or after him. The Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder also possessed something else in a large quantity that many could not match: pride. Waner, who grew up in Harrah, Okla., and played for the Pirates from 1926-1940, led...
Erik Gonzalez using hot bat, great glove to show Pirates he wants shot at a starting role
Erik Gonzalez couldn’t help but cringe when he watched Phillip Evans run full speed into Gregory Polanco’s elbow in right field, a memory the Pittsburgh Pirates infielder didn’t want to watch let alone relive. Gonzalez waited three years with the Cleveland Indians for his chance to become an everyday player....
Pirates doomed by another Carlos Santana 3-run homer
For the second consecutive night, Carlos Santana crushed a three-run home run to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates. This time, he left no doubt about whether it was fair or foul. Santana broke a scoreless tie by smacking a 401-foot shot over the Clemente Wall in the sixth inning, and another...
Pirates injury update: Phillip Evans will require jaw surgery, Joe Musgrove to throw off slope
The broken jaw Phillip Evans suffered in an outfield collision with Gregory Polanco will require surgery and be wired shut, Pittsburgh Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said Wednesday. Evans was leading the Pirates with a .359 batting average and nine RBIs before suffering the season-ending injury while playing...
Extra-inning losses teach Pirates to keep battling late in gamesVideo
Back-to-back strikeouts by Gregory Polanco and Erik Gonzalez provided a humbling end to another extra-inning loss for the Pittsburgh Pirates and served as a symbol of their season. The Pirates went down swinging. Their reaction to the 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians in 10 innings Tuesday night at PNC...
First Call: Pirates speak about Fernando Tatis Jr. controversy, Pens prospect moves on, Steelers have a new ‘piece’
Wednesday’s “First Call” features the Pittsburgh Pirates reaction to the Fernando Tatis Jr. controversy. Steelers tight end Vance McDonald makes a Pittsburgh folklore faux pas. A former Penguins prospect has a new home. And a tip of the cap to Roberto Clemente on his birthday. Taillon on Tatis The big...
Tim Benz: Sports sees competitive flattening in restarts. Will the NFL? If so, could we tell?
No one needs to float this idea past Pittsburgh Penguins fans. They’ve already gotten the message. But one trend is becoming noticeable in the coronavirus-era rebooted sports world. Reformatted training camps, empty stadiums, herky-jerky schedules and covid-19-related absences have heightened competitive balance within the leagues. The playing field is a...
