Pirates/MLB category, Page 213

At the Major League Baseball All-Star break, the 2019 standings do a nice job telling the story of the National League Central. I’m not sure that they do as good of a job telling the story of the 2019 Pittsburgh Pirates. Come to think of it, I don’t know how...

CLEVELAND — Josh Bell knows a baseball game when he sees one. What unraveled Monday night at Progressive Field during the MLB’s Home Run Derby had bats and balls, TV cameras everywhere you turned and an announced crowd of 36,119. But Bell knows this: “It wasn’t really baseball in my...

INDIANAPOLIS (Triple-A, 44-44) is on all-star break until July 10. Right-handed pitchers Mitch Keller (6-3, 3.32), Montana DuRapau (1-1, 1.93) and Dovydas Neverauskas (1-1, 2.31) as well as late addition right fielder Trayvon Robinson (.322) were selected for the International League All-Star game Wednesday night. Next: Thursday at Columbus (Indians),...

CLEVELAND — Josh Bell drove a baseball 459 feet, but the Pittsburgh Pirates’ All-Star lost in the first round of the Home Run Derby, 25-18, to the Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuna Jr., on Monday night at Progressive Field. With best friend Jon Schwind — a hitting coach for the Triple-A...

CLEVELAND — Austin Meadows made the trip to the All-Star Game on a private jet with his wife, Tampa Bay Rays teammates Brandon Lowe and Charlie Morton, and Morton’s wife and four kids. It was hard to believe fewer than 14 months ago, Meadows was hitting .448 through his first...

CLEVELAND — The world was listening. Media from all over the globe, men and women carrying all sorts of video equipment, cellphones and cameras, gathered around Josh Bell’s table Monday at Huntington Convention Center. He talked about everything from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pennant hopes in the second half of the...

Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier will go into the All-Star break with a National League Player of the Week award under his belt. Congrats to @A_Fraz12 on being named the NL Player of the Week!#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/chjJLGtDFe— Pirates (@Pirates) July 8, 2019 In a week when the Pirates won series...

CLEVELAND — Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Josh Bell will start in the All-Star Game, after all. National League manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers said Monday that Bell will be the starting designated hitter in the All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Progressive Field. “I like that presence in...

In “First Call” Monday, Jameson Taillon starts his road to recovery. Ivan Nova helps the Pirates. Charlie Morton continues to shine. And the home run contest may have gotten a little easier for Josh Bell. Baby steps Pirates starter Jameson Taillon ended up playing catch at PNC Park before the...

After at least six concussions, Francisco Cervelli says he’s done with catching. The Pirates general manager isn’t ruling that scenario out either. “As we go through with Cervy, we need to be cognizant that there may be a position change at hand,” Neal Huntington said. “We’re continuing to work through...

Felipe Vazquez was still down and out about giving up the game-winning run to the Milwaukee Brewers in the 10th inning Friday night when Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle called the closer into his office the next day. When Hurdle informed Vazquez that he was chosen to play in the...

Mark Madden may be suspended from Twitter (#FreeMarkMadden), but he isn’t suspended from the “Breakfast With Benz” podcast page. We talk at great length about the United States Women’s National Team. They won the World Cup. Have the politics and self-generated sidebar stories surrounding this team outweighed their accomplishments? It...

The Pittsburgh Pirates enter the All-Star break below .500 but in contention for the NL Central title and a wild-card berth, attempting to avoid no-man’s land before the trade deadline. No wonder Neal Huntington took the middle ground. The Pirates general manager walks a tightrope when talking about his team,...

Stop if you’ve heard this before. Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington is walking a tricky line of weighing options with an inconsistent team in the race for the postseason. Huntington is in his fourth consecutive mid-summer that scenario. His team entered the final day before the All-Star break 3½...

Jon Schwind is hoping to be the perfect pitcher for Josh Bell, which is to say he hopes to repeatedly find the sweet spot on Bell’s bat Monday in the Home Run Derby. As a former roommate and teammate of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ All-Star first baseman who has 27 home...

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle is getting away from baseball over the All-Star break this week. So he made sure to set the starting rotation for his team’s upcoming games Sunday. Chris Archer, Jordan Lyles and Trevor Williams will start games during an important three-game series at the Chicago Cubs...

Kevin Kramer was born just as “Seinfeld” was beginning to become a 1990s cultural phenomenon, and he was 4 years old when its final episode aired. But with his last name, even if Kramer didn’t watch the TV show, he certainly is aware of it. And that became even more...

Forget the title chase in the National League Central. Set aside whatever you might think of the Pittsburgh Pirates roster and how it was constructed by a fiscally aware owner. For the next two days, let’s concentrate on how Josh Bell stacks up against the game’s greatest sluggers before taking...

Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia still was being evaluated after a collision with second baseman Keston Hiura during Saturday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. The two ran into each other while converging on a ground ball hit by Colin Moran in the eighth inning. Arcia stayed...

The only negative moment of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 12-2 victory Saturday night against the Milwaukee Brewers was left fielder Corey Dickerson’s groin injury that forced him from the game in the seventh inning. He injured it while catching a routine fly ball. “I felt something weird in my groin area,”...

When Steven Brault was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday, he took the news with his usual good nature, aware that pitching professionally puts uncommon stress on arms and shoulders. “It’s something that’s going to happen,” Brault said of his left shoulder strain. “We throw baseballs as hard as...

The first thing Felipe Vazquez did when he found out he was a late pick for the All-Star Game was call Seven Springs. Because he wasn’t picked initially, he had planned to take several family members for a getaway. “When Clint (Hurdle) told me, I had to cancel everything,” he...