PITTSBURGH — After a rough week dropped them out of first place in the National League Central, the Pirates (14-11) can climb within a half-game of the surging Cardinals with a victory at PNC Park tonight. St. Louis (15-9) has won 10 of 12 after a 5-7 start.
Alan Saunders handled the Jung Ho Kang related news this afternoon, so this thread will be about today’s game primarily. I’ll go ahead and post the Neal Huntington press conference here, though.
Here’s Alan’s word-for-word transcription for your perusal.
HELLO, OLD FRIEND
Tonight the Pirates face a pitcher who was briefly a member of the organization in right-hander Miles Mikolas.
The 29-year-old was included with Jaff Decker in the 2013 trade that sent Alex Dickerson to the Padres. A month later, the Pirates dealt Mikolas to the Rangers for first baseman Chris McGuinness, who never played in the majors past that point.
As for Mikolas, he was released by Texas in 2014 and subsequently took his talents to Japan, where he pitched for the famed Yomiuri Giants for three seasons. He’s on a two-year, $15.5 million contract with the Cardinals right now and has a 3.46 ERA with just two walks in 26 innings, numbers that Clint Hurdle said “get your attention.”
“He’s throwing his secondary pitches for strikes, while behind in counts,” Hurdle said. “He’s pitching.”
HIDDEN STAR?
If you haven’t familiarized yourself with the story of Cardinals center fielder Tommy Pham, I think you’ll find it interesting and possibly inspirational. Jack Dickey wrote an extensive workup on the fiery Las Vegas native earlier this month for Sports Illustrated.
Pham, 30, has been outspoken about his anger at Cardinals leadership for keeping him in the minors part-time in 2015 and 2016. His breakout last year (.306/.411/.520 in 128 games) lent credence to his complaints, as has his strong start to this season. He leads St. Louis in batting average (.368), on-base percentage (.484) and is second on the team in slugging (.539).
“He’s a threat,” Hurdle said. “He’s got that strong combination of speed and power. Likes to make a difference on the bases. Bad intentions when he gets to the plate. Definitely grabbed ahold of an opportunity last year and made a lot of exciting things happen.”
In fact, Pham is the NL’s co-leader in FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement leader over the previous calendar year. Only Aaron Judge and Mike Trout have accounted for more than Pham’s 7.6 WAR over that (admittedly random) timespan.
WAR Leaders over the last calendar year. Kris Bryant and Tommy Pham tied atop the National League. https://t.co/vIwW5D7Qqe pic.twitter.com/ywzANDSgNK
— Craig Edwards (@craigjedwards) April 25, 2018
“He’s a ballplayer that’s fun to watch play,” Hurdle said. “Very aggressive and tough.”
PIRATES LINEUP
Hurdle’s crew hunts three in a row with the following lineup …
In baseball-related matters, here’s the lineup for Game 25 pic.twitter.com/s1Iyh7LAz5
— Matt Gajtka (GITE-kah) (@MattGajtka) April 27, 2018
(Forgive me: It’s actually Game 26. Need more caffeine.)
CARDINALS LINEUP
Congrats to Mike Matheny’s Cardinals on having the most boring Twitter lineup presentation in Major League Baseball!
Today's #STLCards lineup (4/27):
Pham CF
Fowler RF
J. Martínez 1B
Ozuna LF
Molina C
DeJong SS
Gyorko 3B
Wong 2B
Mikolas P— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 27, 2018
CONDITIONS
It’ll be in the low 60s for first pitch under mostly cloudy skies. Weather.com predicts a 40 percent chance of showers or scattered thunderstorms at around 9 p.m. Light winds throughout. Feels like a spring afternoon/evening should!
