Losing a 2-0 game during a rainstorm to the worst team in baseball at home is not ideal, but it’s probably fine so long as the Pirates don’t find some way to go ahead and lose this series to the Brewers. To that extent, Francisco Liriano takes the mound tonight against rookie Taylor Jungmann in his MLB debut. Liriano’s looked beyond excellent since his awful start against the Twins at PNC a couple of weeks ago; in three starts he’s struck out 29 hitters to go with four walks and 13 hits over 19 innings, which compliments that 0.95 ERA nicely. Jungmann was a first round pick by the Brewers in 2011, but he hasn’t seen a top prospect list since 2012. He’s had some control issues in Triple-A this year to go with a 6.37 ERA, though that’s tough to properly assess as the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate is now in Colorado Springs (why that is, I have no idea). Ideally, you’d like to see the Pirate offense welcome this guy to the big leagues in rude fashion (nothing personal, Taylor Jungmann, that’s just how it is).
Anyway, the Pirates have been drafting all day today and I think they’re into the 10th or so round now. I didn’t have time to keep up with the draft while I was at work, but Bucs Dugout and Pirates Prospects have, of course, been keeping up with the draft today, and I’d point you in both of their directions for some analysis on the Pirates’ picks. I’ll try to get a draft summary done at some point before the end of the week.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05.
Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images
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