The Bradenton Marauders had to wait an extra day to find out who their opponent would be in the Florida State League finals and the best case scenario happened. Tampa won game three of their series in nine innings on Thursday night after playing a total of 28 innings during the first two games. That means that the entire FSL finals will be played at McKechnie Field, because Tampa’s home park is undergoing renovations now. For the first two games of the series, Bradenton will bat in the bottom of the inning like normal. For the rest of the best-of-five series, Tampa will play as the home team.
Altoona evened up their series last night behind the pitching of Clay Holmes and a strong relief appearance by Jared Lakind. The series now moves to Akron, as does Sean McCool, who will be going out on the road to cover the rest of the series. Tonight we get to see Nick Kingham make a playoff start, as he continues to add to his innings total after returning from Tommy John surgery. He has already thrown 46 innings this season, plus he could add as many as six more to that total tonight. He’s on a 90-pitch limit, or six innings, whichever comes first.
Kingham will look to bounce back from his worst start of his return. On Sunday, he gave up six runs over five innings, though I will point out that all six runs came during the fifth inning and he started the game by retiring the first 13 batters he faced. In his first nine starts this season, he allowed a total of nine earned runs.
As far as his future goes, you’re really just looking for him to get six innings in, so he has a bigger total to add to next year in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. The competitor Kingham is though, he wants to get six shutout innings in and get another start (in the finals) before this season comes to an end.
Bradenton will send Yeudy Garcia to the mound. He didn’t know until around midnight on Wednesday night whether his next start would be yesterday or today. When Tampa lost in the 15th inning, that meant an extra day off for Garcia. So now he gets to make his last start of the season against a Tampa team that he faced one time this year back on June 11th. He threw 5.2 innings in that game, giving up one earned run on seven hits and three walks, with five strikeouts.
As for the head-to-head match-up between the two clubs, Tampa won it 5-3, but three of those wins (and one loss) came in Tampa during the first week of the season. In early June, the two teams split the four-game series in Bradenton.
One player you won’t be seeing for Tampa is Stephen Tarpley, who was placed on the disabled list yesterday. According to YankeesProspects.com, that isn’t a real website, so I don’t know why he was put on the disabled list. He made one start for Tampa on Sunday and allowed five runs over five innings. Tito Polo will be playing though. He is 3-for-12 with two walks in three games with the Yankees.
**The Arizona Fall League rosters were announced last week and it didn’t take long for the Pirates to make massive changes, although we only got half of the story. Austin Meadows, Trevor Williams and Dovydas Neverauskas have all been dropped from the roster. No reasons were given, but as mentioned in the article we posted, the placement of Neverauskas in the league was tentative at best. Williams has been called up to the majors since then, which is usually (but not always) frowned upon by the league. There have been a few players with MLB experience over the years. Both Meadows and Williams were going to be repeat players, which is also something you rarely see. The league doesn’t begin play until October 11th, so these changes were made well in advance of the league starting, but I’ve never seen three players (speaking about Pirates only) from the original roster drop off before. We will post an article when replacements are named. At least the three players we talked to last week are all still going.
**Here are the playoff schedules for Altoona and Bradenton, which will remain up in the Morning Report until both teams either win, or have been eliminated. Note that the FSL finals says “@ Tampa” for the final three games, but they will be played in Bradenton, with the Yankees batting in the bottom of the inning.
Bradenton
9/6: Marauders 11, St Lucie 6
9/7: Marauders 4, St Lucie 1
Marauders win series 2-0
FSL Finals
9/9: Marauders vs Tampa 6:30 PM
9/10: Marauders vs Tampa 6:30 PM
9/11: Marauders @ Tampa 5:00 PM
9/12: Marauders @ Tampa 6:30 PM (if necessary)
9/13: Marauders @ Tampa6:30 PM (if necessary)
Altoona
9/7: Akron 12, Altoona 8
9/8: Altoona 3, Akron 1
9/9: Altoona @ Akron 7:05 PM
9/10: Altoona @ Akron 7:05 PM
9/11: Altoona @ Akron 6:05 PM (if necessary)
PLAYOFF PUSH
The Pirates trail the second wild card spot by a four games.
PIRATES GAME GRAPH
Source: FanGraphs
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Today’s Starter and Notes: The Pirates won 4-1 on Thursday night over the Reds. They now send Steven Brault to the mound tonight, making his fifth start. Each of his first four starts were against NL Central teams, facing the Cubs and Cardinals once and Brewers twice. In his last outing, which was his first home start, Brault gave up one earned run over five innings against Milwaukee. The Reds will counter with Tim Adleman, who has a 4.02 ERA on 40.1 innings, with 30 strikeouts and a 1.29 WHIP. He is a 28-year-old rookie, who faced the Pirates in his big league debut back on May 1st and allowed two runs over six innings. Adleman faced the Cardinals in his last start and gave up three runs over five innings.
MLB: Pittsburgh (69-69) vs Reds (57-82) 7:05 PM
Probable starter: Steven Brault (3.32 ERA, 10:17 BB/SO, 19.0 IP)
AAA: Indianapolis (70-74) (season preview)
AA: Altoona (1-1) @ Akron (1-1) 7:05 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Nick Kingham (5.73 ERA, 4:10 BB/SO, 11.0 IP)
High-A: Bradenton (0-0) vs Tampa (0-0) 6:30 PM (season preview)
Probable starter: Yeudy Garcia (2.76 ERA, 54:127 BB/SO, 127.1 IP)
Low-A: West Virginia (71-68) (season preview)
Short-Season A: Morgantown (38-38) (season preview)
Rookie: Bristol (25-43) (season preview)
GCL: Pirates (22-34) (season preview)
DSL: Pirates (27-42) (season preview)
HIGHLIGHTS
Tyler Glasnow was named the Pitcher of the Year by MLB Pipeline on Thursday. Here are two videos from earlier this season. In both of them, he is picking up his 11th strikeout of the game.
April game against Durham, which was probably his best pitching performance all season.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
9/7: Josh Smith assigned to Altoona.
9/6: Pirates recall Tyler Glasnow, Drew Hutchison, Trevor Williams and Pedro Florimon. Kelvin Marte and Curtis Partch designated for assignment.
9/6: Henry Hirsch assigned from Altoona to Bradenton.
9/5: Jung Ho Kang activated from disabled list.
9/3: Jacob Taylor assigned to Morgantown.
9/2: Pirates recall Jameson Taillon, Steven Brault, Jason Rogers and Adam Frazier. Chris Stewart activated from disabled list.
9/1: Jung Ho Kang sent to Indianapolis on rehab.
9/1: Pirates receive Jake Brentz and Pedro Vasquez from Mariners to complete earlier trade for Arquimedes Caminero.
8/31: Pirates trade Kyle Lobstein to Baltimore Orioles for Zach Phillips.
8/31: Logan Ratledge promoted to Bradenton. Alfredo Reyes activated from West Virginia disabled list.
8/31: Pirates release Raymond Rodriguez, Ramy Perez and Ramon Garcia.
8/31: David Whitehead assigned to Morgantown.
8/30: Tito Polo and Stephen Tarpley sent to New York Yankees as part of Ivan Nova trade from August 1st.
8/30: Jason Creasy and Jhondaniel Medina promoted to Indianapolis.
8/30: Justin Maffei and Trace Tam Sing assigned to Indianapolis.
8/30: Henry Hirsch and Junior Lopez promoted to Altoona
8/30: Nick Neumann activated from Bradenton disabled list.
8/30: Alen Hanson promoted to Pirates. Jameson Taillon and Steven Brault assigned to Bristol.
8/30: Pirates purchased contract of Kelvin Marte. Kyle Lobstein designated for assignment.
8/30: Mitch Keller and Sean Keselica promoted to Bradenton. Scooter Hightower and Matt Frawley promoted to West Virginia
8/30: Mike Wallace promoted to Morgantown.
8/29: Pirates recall Steven Brault. Gerrit Cole placed on disabled list.
8/28: A.J. Schugel recalled from Indianapolis. Adam Frazier optioned to Bristol.
8/28: Pirates activate Tyler Glasnow from disabled list. Optioned to Indianapolis.
8/28: Justin Topa placed on disabled list. Henry Hirsch activated from temporary inactive list.
THIS DATE IN PIRATES HISTORY
Eight former Pittsburgh Pirates players born on this date, though one of them was much more important to the team than others. One of the players born on this date was Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt, who played five seasons in Pittsburgh. He went 35-31, 3.08 in 616.1 innings with the Pirates, winning 15 games during the 1934 season. In his career, he won 237 games. We also have a manager, who is a Hall of Fame player. Frankie Frisch led the Pirates to a 539-528 record from 1940 until 1947. He had five winning seasons in Pittsburgh, topping out at 90 wins in 1944.
Other players born on this date include 1887-88 outfielder Abner Dalrymple, who was the first batter after the team made the switch to the National League in 1887. Doc Johnston, 1915-16 first baseman. He hit .243 and drove in 103 runs in 261 games with the Pirates. Pete Naton, 1953 catcher, whose entire big league career consisted of six games with the Pirates after graduating from Holy Cross in 1953.
Dan Costello, 1914-16 outfielder. Had a .566 OPS in 152 games over three season. His only other Major League time was two at-bats with the 1913 Yankees. Tom Foley, 1993-94 infielder. Hit .246 in 145 games for Pirates, seeing starts at all four infield spots. Dan Miceli, 1993-96 reliever. Had a 5.41 ERA in 139 games with Pittsburgh, picking up 24 saves.
The best player born on this date just happened to be born in the same hometown and in the same year as John Dreker, just blocks away. At one time, they even lived on the same street. That John Dreker would be my great-grandfather, though my first house was also two blocks away from the Miller residence in Kearny, NJ, which was still in their family until 2009. That proximity is likely the main reason we ended up with six relatives in common.
Dots Miller was the second baseman for the 1909 World Series champs, the double play partner of the great Honus Wagner. Miller played 151 games that season, posting a .725 OPS, while leading all NL second baseman in fielding percentage and assists. He finished third in doubles, fourth in triples and fifth with 222 total bases. He even drove in the third most runs in the league, finishing with 87 RBIs. In five seasons in Pittsburgh during the deadball era, he had a .704 OPS in 710 games
You can read his full bio here, which is includes an updated story on how he got his nickname. You should read it and pass it along for me, after all, this is the 154th day straight I wrote a Morning Report for you. It’s a free article, so non-subscribers can read it.
