Pirates reinstate reliever Colin Holderman from injured list

The Pittsburgh Pirates regained the services of one of their key bullpen pitchers, as Friday afternoon, right-hander Colin Holderman was reinstated from the 15-day injured list.

In a corresponding move, the Pirates optioned right-handed reliever Cody Bolton to Triple-A Indianapolis.

“I’m really excited to be back, especially after a nice sweep of the Padres,” Holderman said. “I’m happy to be back with all this momentum.”

Leading into the summer, Holderman excelled as the Pirates’ set-up man, pitching in an eighth-inning role ahead of David Bednar.

In May, he posted an ERA of zero, appearing eight times and allowing just five hits with 14 strikeouts and a lone walk over 7 2/3 innings of work.

But by the time Holderman was placed on the injured list June 15 because of right wrist inflammation, his effectiveness had been tailing off.

Holderman made five appearances for the Pirates in June and allowed earned runs in three of them, posting a 13.50 ERA during that span.

A June 14 shellacking at the hands of the Cubs, in which he gave up three runs on four hits, was the final outing ahead of his stint on the injured list.

How Holderman will factor in remains to be seen. Of his 26 appearances this season, 21 have been in the eighth inning.

“I want to go straight into the eighth inning role,” Holderman said. “I don’t know how the staff does that and at the end of the day, they make the decision. So, whatever they decide, (when) they call my name, I’ll be ready to go out there and dominate.”

In Holderman’s absence, manager Derek Shelton had not settled on a lone pitcher to handle set-up duties in the eighth inning.

Bednar was entrusted with a handful of longer outings, while Angel Perdomo and Dauri Moreta also saw action in the eighth during close games.

Before Friday’s series-opening game against Milwaukee, Shelton indicated that Holderman’s responsibilities may not be limited to an eighth-inning role.

“He’s a guy that was pitching high-leverage innings for us,” Shelton said. “I’ll follow up … in terms of where he pitches. I think we will find the matchups right now of getting him back acclimated. That could be at the end, it could be earlier than that. It’s nice to have him back because he was a major part of our bullpen early in the year.”

On the year, the 27-year-old owns a 0-1 record and 4.01 ERA to go along with 12 holds and one save.

Bolton, 25, made one appearance with the Pirates June 28 against San Diego following his most recent call-up from the Indians, which was June 22.

He has an 11.00 ERA on the year with Pittsburgh, chiefly because of a disastrous outing May 29 vs. the Giants in which he allowed six hits and eight earned runs while managing to record only one out.

In 18 games with the Indians, Bolton is 2-1 with a 2.77 ERA.