30.5 F
Pittsburgh

Pirates Notes on Felipe Rivero, Chad Kuhl, and Injury Updates

Published:

PITTSBURGH — Somewhat lost in the insanity of the Pirates’ 10-7 loss to the Washington Nationals Sunday night was the eighth-inning meltdown from receiver Felipe Rivero.

Rivero had given up just four earned runs in his first 25 innings with the Pirates, but in 1/3 of an inning Sunday, he gave up five runs to six batters including a two-run home run by Jayson Werth.

Since it was Rivero’s first really tough outing with the Pirates, I asked him about how he feels he responds to adversity on the mound.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m ready to go. It happened yesterday. Today is a new day. I’m ready to move forward.”

Rivero said he thought his pitches were crisp, just that the Nationals bats were better.

“The pitches were there,” he said. “They just took advantage of them. There’s nothing you can do.”

He didn’t think their success against him had anything to do with the fact that they were his former teammates.

“You saw what happened the first day (Rivero pitched a scoreless inning Friday),” he said. “The second day, they got me. It’s nothing that they can know where I’m going to throw because I don’t know what I’m going to throw. They were just guessing.”

The outing raised Rivero’s ERA from 3.50 to 4.08 and was his second-worst appearance of the season.

COOL STORY

Chad Kuhl will take the mound for his 13th major-league start. In his 12 previous appearance, Kuhl has earned a quality start in eight of them. One of the other young pitchers in the clubhouse called him “Mr. Quality Start” over the last week. It fits because while Kuhl has been good, he hasn’t been great. He’s pitched beyond the sixth inning just once and never more than 6.1.

I asked manager Clint Hurdle if he thought Kuhl was capable of being more than “Mr. Quality Start” in the future.

“Time will tell,” Hurdle said. “If you keep giving them the ball enough, they’re going to let you know exactly who they are, what they can do. I know he has every desire to pitch deeper in games. I know he has every desire to be more pitch efficient. … We’ll keep giving him the ball and see where he can take it. It’s been fun watching him develop at the major-league level this year. He’s been a very good add for us.”

INJURY NOTES

Josh Harrison said he’s “feeling good” and thought he was ahead of the curve on his four-to-six week timeframe for his groin injury, but not good enough to get him back before the end of the season and he was put on the 60-day disabled list before the game.

Francisco Cervelli missed Sunday with a wrist injury after taking a foul ball off it Saturday night. He is back in the lineup for Monday.
Outfielders Starling Marte (back spasms) and Gregory Polanco (facial contusion) remain out with no updates. RHP Neftali Feliz has thrown off flat ground, but has not pitched on a mound yet.

Related Articles

Latest Articles