PITTSBURGH — Gerrit Cole, Ray Searage and Chris Stewart tiptoed through the early-afternoon raindrops to get in a 32-pitch side session at PNC Park.
It went well enough that Cole is still expected to return from the disabled list Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Stewart reported that Cole threw all of his pitches and looked good.
While Cole’s rotation spot is fixed, the Pirates still haven’t announced a schedule for the rest of the three-game set in Philadelphia, but Ivan Nova and Steven Brault would be on regular rest.
Nova’s Big Weakness
Ivan Nova made a fantastic start in his complete-game six-hitter Thursday night. But he also revealed a pretty significant weakness: his hitting.
Twice, the Cincinnati Reds walked shortstop Jordy Mercer to get let Nova hit with the bases loaded.
Twice, Nova struck out.
“The six men left of base kind of skews the left-on-base numbers for the night,” laughed manager Clint Hurdle.
The Pirates focused this off-season and spring on improving the hitting of their pitchers, but they have no plans to get Nova any extra work with the bat in the middle of the season.
“If we could, we would have already,” Hurdle said. “He’s going out there and doing the best with what he’s got. It’s limited experience handling the bat. … He’ll improve.”
Mercer is used to the situation, and said the Pirates’ success with re-working the batting of Francisco Liriano coming into the 2016 season.
“When you hit 8-hole as much as I have, you get pretty familiar with what’s going on,” Mercer said. “Every time, you go up to Cervelli and say, ‘please don’t hit a double,” but it’s good for the team if he does. … One of these days it’ll pay off and [Nova] get a big hit and we’ll score more.’”
ON THE MEND
• Center fielder Starling Marte (back spasms) will miss his fourth straight game.
• The Pirates had no update on the available on RHPs Neftali Feliz and A.J. Schugel.
