Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – Welcome Back Polanco

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pittsburgh Pirates started their series against the Padres off on a good note with a 6-4 win behind great efforts from Gregory Polanco and Chad Kuhl. This series is especially important to the Pirates, as they have a difficult stretch of series upcoming against the Dodgers, Giants, Marlins, and Astros. We’ll really know what the team is made of after those games.

But for now, it’s important to at least win this series, and a sweep would be fantastic. The Pirates moved to within 2.5 games of the second Wild Card spot, and an upcoming series against the Marlins could impact that standing greatly. Last night, Chad Kuhl delivered another quality outing, as he may have officially ousted Jeff Locke from a rotation spot and pushed Steven Brault to the first depth option out of Triple-A. His ERA in five major league starts is now 3.91, and the Pirates are 5-0 in those five starts.

Gregory Polanco, who has been battling injuries of late, got his first start since August 3rd, and was placed into the cleanup position in the lineup, a role he’s almost never in. But Polanco delivered with a three-run home run in the fifth inning that opened the game up for the Pirates. He now leads the team in home runs this season with 16.

Andrew McCutchen got hot right around the All-Star break, but he’s actually doing worse since the All-Star game. He is however walking more in August, which is a good sign. He already has six walks in the month of August, which is more than he had in the entire month of July.

Tomorrow night the Pirates turn to Ryan Vogelsong to try to take the second game of the series, who pitched well in his first start off the DL against the Braves recently. He holds a respectable 3.25 ERA this season, albeit in a small sample size. He looks to be competing with Tyler Glasnow for the final rotation spot once Glasnow returns from the DL.

Yesterday’s Player of the Game

Who is your #Pirates player of the game following tonight's 6-4 victory? #RaiseIt

— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) August 10, 2016

Baseball Talk from Around the Web

• With Prince Fielder set to likely retire today, Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPN notes that the Rangers will miss Fielder’s unselfish play and his passion for winning above all else.
• The Red Sox did not have any sort of tribute to Alex Rodriguez when he came to Fenway for the last time last night. I would have paid him tribute, but it’s understandable that they didn’t.
• Back in the day, Alex Rodriguez was almost traded to Boston. What if he had been? Jay Jaffe of SI.com explores this “alternate universe” in which A-Rod is a Red Sock.

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