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Bouncing Back
After two consecutive losses at the hands of the Colorado Rockies, the Pittsburgh Pirates continued their west-coast swing in San Francisco Monday night and bounced back very nicely.
Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run homer and drove in four on the night and Gerrit Cole won for the fifth time in his past six starts as the Bucs took the first game of the three-game set 10-3.
Cole (8-7) allowed two runs on six hits in six innings, struck out four and walked four. His lone defeat in his past eight starts came against the Giants prior to the All-Star break.
Jordy Mercer also clubbed a three-run homer for the Bucs.
Josh Bell and Starling Marte added RBI doubles and Josh Harrison chipped in an RBI single in the win.
The Bucs jumped on Giants’ starter Matt Cain for two runs in the first and four in the second as that was plenty of run support for Cole on the night.
The series continues tonight when Jameson Taillon (6-3, 3.08 ERA) toes the rubber for the Bucs. He will be opposed by the Giants Madison Bumgarner (0-4, 3.57).
With the win the Bucs move to within 2.5 games of the first-place Milwaukee Brewers.
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Mercer continues hot streak
Lost in the shuffle of the scorching hot streak that McCutchen has been on since Memorial Day is the streak that Mercer has put together.
Never known for his bat, Mercer has hit .314 with eight homers and 32 RBI in his last 53 games.
Even more impressive is that Mercer has put up these numbers while hitting in the eight spot of the order most nights where he doesn’t always get great pitches to hit.
On the season he has put up a respectable .267/.341/.426 line with 10 homers and 43 RBI. Mercer was terrible through April and most of May, but is likely to set career highs across the board offensively this season. This all while continuing to play very good defense at shortstop.
With Kevin Newman‘s recent promotion to Triple-A, the Pirates can allow Newman to take his time in the minors as they are more than fine with Mercer in the lineup everyday.
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