Morning Rundown: Pirates hire hitting and assistant pitching coaches, Scottsdale wins again
Pirates make a couple of hires to their coaching staff, Scottsdale's winnings streak continues
Scottsdale wins sixth straight
Recap by John Dreker
The Scottsdale Scorpions came into Wednesday afternoon's game with two games left in the season and a slim chance at one of the three playoff spots. They could only control the outcome of their game on the road against the last place Peoria Javelinas, then hope for the best from the other two games. Three Pittsburgh Pirates were in the starting lineup for this contest. Center fielder Sammy Siani batted lead-off. Kervin Pichardo batted fifth and started at third base. Catcher Geovanny Planchart hit in the eighth spot. Khristian Curtis would join the group out of the bullpen for an extended outing.
Siani started the game with a ground out to shortstop. Pichardo tripled to start the second inning, then scored one batter later to make it a 2-0 game. Planchart grounded into a double play to end the second inning. Siani walked and scored in the third inning, making it a 3-0 score. Pichardo grounded out to shortstop to start the fourth inning. Planchart made it a 5-1 game with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. Siani flew out to end the fourth.
Curtis took over in the sixth inning. He struck out Ethan Salas on five pitches for the first out. Brock Wilken then hit his fourth home run of the season. That was the first run given up by any of the five Pirates pitchers since October 25th. Curtis served up a single off the shortstop's glove before settling down to get a line out and a strikeout to end the inning. Pitch information was available for this game. Curtis topped out at 96.2 MPH on his 15 pitches. He was throwing mainly fastballs until the final batter saw no fastballs.
Curtis needed just seven pitches in the seventh inning to get a fly ball and two ground outs. He remained out there for the eighth when he needed twice as many pitches to get through the frame. He mixed his pitches well in the inning, which resulted in a walk to the lead-off hitter. That was followed by a ground out, strikeout, and fly out to end his day. He threw a total of 36 pitches, with 26 going for strikes. He allowed one run on two hits, one walk, and three strikeouts over three innings. His fall finishes with a 4.67 ERA over 17.1 innings. He allowed 13 hits while posting an 8:16 BB/SO ratio.
Planchart walked in the sixth inning. Siani doubled to start the seventh, then scored three batters later. Pichardo and Planchart both struck out in the seventh. All three Pirates drew a walk in their next plate appearance, then Siani walked again in the ninth with the bases loaded, which scored Pichardo with the 12th run of the day.
Siani went 1-for-3 with three walks, two runs, and one RBI. He's now hitting .387/.471/.560Â through 21 games.
Pichardo went 1-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored. He's batting .275/.403/.490 over 16 games.
Planchart had an 0-for-2 game, with two walks and an RBI. He has a .323/.450/.548 slash line over 11 games.
Scottsdale won 12-3, giving them six wins in a row and a 15-14 record. They finish the season with a 3:30 PM EST road game today against the Glendale Desert Dogs. Scottsdale still has a chance to make the playoffs due to the league tiebreaker rule, which is based on head-to-head records.
The Pittsburgh Pirates made a pair of coaching hires on Wednesday. They started the day with Matt Hague getting the nod as the new hitting coach, replacing Andy Haines.
Hague was originally drafted by the Pirates back in 2008, making his major league debut in 2012. He played a total of 33 games with the Pirates, finishing off his playing career with the Toronto Blue Jays.
He started coaching in 2020 as the Dunedin Blue Jays (then High-A) hitting coach, jumping to Double-A in 2021 and eventually Triple-A in 2023 before finally serving as the assistant hitting coach in the majors this past season.
For some added reading involving Hague, he was featured in this FanGraphs article.
Later on in the day, it was discovered that Brent Strom would be joining the staff as the assistant pitching coach. This apparently won’t fill the bullpen coach role that is still open after Justin Meccage was let go.
Strom, 76, was most recently the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach, where he was let go after the 2024 season.
He was notably the pitching coach for the Houston Astros from 2014-2021, winning the World Series with the team in 2017.
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In honor of the return of our Dear Leader, I propose the following coaching appointments:
Hitting: Donny Iris, the man produced nothing but 'em. Banger after banger.
Bullpen: Bob's nephew who didn't get a christmas present last year, Bobby's got some making up to do!
Manager: dual role covered by Chief Legal Counsel
Public Relations: developer guy building that ferris wheel
How sweet it would be if Hague could salvage just one of Bae, Hayes, Peguero, Suwinski, Malcom Nunez, Hank
Would love to have been a spider on the wall to listen in on his interview to hear what his aproach would be for each of them