The Pirates win for a second straight time on their Missouri road trip. Joe Block has the recap.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton says Royals starter Cole Ragans had the Bucs on their heels until the 8th inning breakthrough against the Kansas City bullpen.
Ke’Bryan Hayes continues his blazing hot August. He’s hitting .320 this month with six homers and twenty RBIs. He says it’s taken a lot of work on his swing mechanics to get to this point.
Hayes faced Royals reliever Carlos Hernandez on Monday night and drew a walk. He says he was looking for the right-hander’s fastball when he hit his 424-foot home run.
Royals manager Matt Quantraro was disappointed for his players, especially Hernandez, who gave up the Hayes home run.
For the series finale tonight, Andre Jackson [0-1, 4.91 ERA] will start for the Pirates against Angel Zerpa [1-2, 7.79 ERA]. It’s a 7:45 airtime, 8:10 first pitch on WCCS.
MLB
Major League teams were apparently in the spirit of the NFL, with several disappointing teams cutting players loose yesterday. That included the Angels, who let go six players… starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, outfielders Randal Grichuk and Hunter Renfroe, and relief pitchers Reynaldo Lopez, Matt Moore, and Dominic Leone on waivers.
The Yankees cut outfielder Harrison Bader and third baseman Josh Donaldson, the Mets waived pitcher Carlos Carrasco and the White Sox released starter Mike Clevinger.
ALTOONA CURVE
Altoona opened its series with Erie with a 7-5 win as Aaron Shortridge won his fifth straight August start. Shortridge upped his record to 10-7 and lowered his ERA to 4.45, giving up three runs, but only two earned, in seven innings. Matt Gorski clubbed his 17th home run of the season and Carter Bins had two hits, including a two-run homer. Joe Perez had a bases-loaded three-run double for the Curve, which will send lefty Jackson Wolf to the mound for game two of the series tonight.
