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Tyler Glasnow Leaves With Right Shoulder Discomfort in Pirates Win

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PITTSBURGH — Starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow was removed from Pirates’ 7-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday afternoon with discomfort in his right, throwing shoulder.

Glasnow, 22, was making his second major-league start and was struggling against the Phillies, having thrown 78 pitches in three-plus innings while giving up four hits, two runs, walking three and striking out two.

Just 42 of Glasnow’s 78 pitches went for strikes. He also hit two Phillies and allowed five stolen bases. After walking Cesar Hernandez and hitting his mound opponent, Aaron Nola, in the fourth inning, Glasnow threw three pitches to Peter Bourjos before leaning over in pain, prompting a visit from athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk. After a brief conversation, Glasnow was removed from the game.

“He didn’t notice or tell us or share anything with us until just visually, we saw him moving his arm around like it was uncomfortable,” manager Clint Hurdle said. But Glasnow said that his shoulder had been bothering him even before the start.

“It’s a long year and you’re always going to have things come up,” he said. “It was kind of a progression. Inning by inning, it got a little worse. They felt like it was time for me to come out.”

Glasnow wouldn’t commit to the discomfort in his shoulder being the root cause of his struggles on the mound, but he obviously was not fully healthy.

“It’s hard for me to come up here and tell everyone that my shoulder was bad, so I threw bad,” he said. “I definitely wasn’t 100 percent, but you’re not going to be 100 percent a lot of games. You have to go out there and throw with what you have. I’m not blaming anything on anything.”

Glasnow took the blame himself for the Phillies’ five-for-five night stealing second base.

“It takes a while for me to get to the plate,” he admitted. “I have to be more aware of it and switch up my looks. That’s definitely a huge part of the game I’m going to keep working on.”

That work includes both working faster from the plate and different strategies to keep runners close at first base.

“It’s a mix of everything. It’s the whole controlling the running game package,” he said. “I’ve made a lot of strides with it. I think my focus just wasn’t there today on it. It’s definitely better than that. Like I said, I just have to keep working and improve.”

Hurdle said that Glasnow’s 6-foot-8 frame has been a hindrance in working with quick movement to the plate.

“He’s a very tall man with long leverage,” he said. “It’s something he’s worked extremely hard on in the minor leagues and he’s going to have to continue to work on.”

When Glasnow’s fastball was missing the strike zone, for the most part, it was because he wasn’t finishing the pitch, leaving it high and to his arm side. Hurdle thought that he may have been too quick with his delivery — meaning that the running issue and the command issue could be linked in this case.

“At times, any pitcher, if you watch them in their delivery, when they get into a hurry, the arm drags, the ball is up and away [to left-handers]. Maybe when they get a little bit quick in their delivery and they come out of a little too soon.”

“A lot of pitchers, if you’re late or you’re [quick], you’re going to miss there or you’re going to miss low and away,” Glasnow agreed. “I can’t tell what it was from. Sometimes, pitching is pitching. Sometimes you have it, sometimes, you don’t.”

PICK-ME-UP

With the starting pitcher out of the game with no outs in the fourth, Hurdle turned to the bullpen, and they were able to come through, giving up two runs in five innings of work.

First, Juan Nicasio got out of the two-on, no outs jam that Glasnow left in the fourth. Then, Neftali Feliz came in for Jared Hughes with two on and two outs in the sixth and was able to escape.

“[Nicasio was a] big shot in the arm,” Hurdle said. “You don’t know which way that inning goes if he doesn’t shut it down and he shut it down. He’s shown the ability to do some good things out of the bullpen. He’s helped us there.”

OFFENSIVE OUTBURST

After being three-hit on Friday night, the Pirates offense broke out for seven runs thanks to a big inning in the fifth. All nine Pirates came up to the plate and Gregory Polanco and David Freese each hit two-run singles.

“For us to square up balls with runners on base,” Hurdle said of the key that inning. “Polanco was able to do it. [Starling] Marte got [hit with a pitch], and then Freese with a nice piece of hitting to stay on the ball and drive it to drive in two more. We saw good at-bats.”

The Pirates’ offense had a big-time cheerleader from the clubhouse.

“It’s good to come out and see them win to be honest,” Glasnow said. “I didn’t want to come out of a game like that in three innings and then lose.”

NOTES

Francisco Cervelli went 2 for 3 with a sacrifice fly. … Josh Harrison was 1 for 4 with his sixth triple of the season. … Feliz, Tony Watson and Mark Melancon pitched 3.1 scoreless to persevere the win. Melancon earned his 29th save, which is third in the National League.

UP NEXT

Jameson Taillon will take the mound for the rubber match Sunday afternoon at 1:35 p.m. He’s looking to build off a six-inning, one-run performance in his second-half debut and return from the disabled list Tuesday in Washington. He’ll face Vince Velasquez, who leads the Phillies rotation in ERA (3.15) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.3).

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