Pittsburgh must start to play better in order to avoid becoming a seller at the deadline, and needs to take advantage of a four-game home series against the Miami Marlins. Pittsburgh has the pitching advantage in this matchup and would love to win at least three of these contests.
This series will be contested from Thursday, June 8 through Sunday, June 11, 2017 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Pitching Matchups
The Pirates will begin the series on Thursday by sending Gerrit Cole to the hill. He is 3-5 on the season with a 4.27 ERA. Cole has given up eight home runs over his past three starts and has watched his ERA balloon as a result. If he can keep the ball in the park, he should have success. The Marlins will send out Edinson Volquez, who is 2-7 with a 3.79 ERA. Volquez would love a repeat of his last start, when he no-hit the Diamondbacks.
On Friday, Pittsburgh is scheduled to start the talented but inconsistent Tyler Glasnow. He has great stuff but has yet to harness it and enters with a 2-5 record, a 6.97 ERA and a 1.87 WHIP. The Marlins will start Vance Worley, who is 0-2 with a 6.59 ERA himself.
The Saturday series will feature the Pirates’ Trevor Williams, who is 3-3 with a 4.57 ERA. He has six starts since joining the rotation and has been solid, allowing only one earned run in each of his past two starts. The Marlins will send out Dan Straily, who is 4-4 with a 3.59 ERA. He is averaging more than a strikeout per inning and has turned himself into a solid starter.
In the series finale, Pittsburgh is going to have Ivan Nova on the mound. He is 5-4 with a 3.04 ERA on the season and has only walked seven batters all season. The Marlins will start Jeff Locke. He is 0-1 with a 3.48 ERA in two starts on the year.
Injury Update
The Marlins recently received some bad news when first baseman Justin Bour landed on the disabled list with a left ankle injury. He was hurt in Monday’s game against the Cubs when he was running the bases after entering the game as a pinch-hitter.
Bour has been a fantastic surprise for Miami. He is batting .295 on the season with 16 homers, 40 RBIs and a sparkling OPS of .959. Bour is among the league leaders in home runs, which is even more impressive considering how cavernous his home ballpark is in Miami.
The Marlins have some solid hitters but the loss of Bour from the middle of the lineup will certainly be a blow and hurt their chances in this series against the Pirates.
Missing Stars
The Pirates are struggling offensively this season, which is keeping them from being a legitimate playoff contender. There are two large reasons for that.
The first is the suspension of Starling Marte, who is in the middle of missing 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Marte hit .311 with nine homers, 71 runs and 47 stolen bases a season ago but was popped after only 13 games played and the Pirates could be out of the playoff chase when he gets back.
Andrew McCutchen has been playing every day but his performance has fallen off sharply. He is batting .231 with nine homers and 29 RBIs on the year, with a .724 OPS. McCutchen is a former MVP who needs to pick it up, and at least he has done better of late, raising his average 26 percentage points over the past 10 games.
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