Blogs

MIAMI — About a half-hour after tonight’s 11-9 loss, the Pirates informed us that lefty Paul Maholm will not pitch as scheduled Friday. Instead, righty Daniel McCutchen (2-5, 6.36 ERA) will start against the Marlins. Maholm (9-15, 5.10) was scratched due to what was described only as “left knee irritation.” He has had four surgeries [...]

MIAMI — The end is in sight. The Pirates have four games left in the 2010 season, starting with tonight’s game against the Marlins at Whatever It’s Called This Week Stadium. Lefty Zach Duke will make his final start. In his career, Duke has pitched seven-plus innings in 56 games — in those games, he’s [...]

MIAMI — Matt Walbeck’s career aspirations have cost him his job as manager of Double-A Altoona. Late last night, farm director Kyle Stark called Walbeck to tell him he will not return to Altoona in 2011. “It caught me off guard,” Walbeck said this afternoon by phone. “Kyle basically said it was time for us to [...]

ST. LOUIS — The Pirates last night snapped a seven-game losing streak in St. Louis. They are 13-22 in this park since new Busch Stadium opened in 2006. A win today would give the Pirates back-to-back wins here for just the third time (April 16-17, 2007 and June 2-Aug. 19, 2008). »»» The Cardinals last [...]

ST. LOUIS — Three State College pitchers are listed among Baseball America’s list of the top 20 prospects in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. Right-hander Zack Von Rosenberg is No. 6, left-hander Colton Cain is No. 10 and lefty Zack Dodson is No. 17. Von Rosenberg, 19, was a sixth-round pick in 2009 [...]

ST. LOUIS — Charlie Morton continued to show signs of a turnaround — more or less — in Monday’s 6-4 loss against the Cardinals. Morton worked six innings and allowed four runs on a season-high 10 hits. He struck out four and walked none. It was his fourth straight start without taking a loss. It [...]

Rookie third baseman Pedro Alvarez today was named NL player of the week.

Outfielder John Bowker is not in the lineup today due to a sore right knee. He fouled a ball of his knee a couple of days ago, and it’s continued to bother him to the point where Bowker took himself out of last night’s game. “It got to the point yesterday where it was affecting [...]

Over three years in the Pirates’ farm system, a total of 72 outings (68 starts), left-hander Rudy Owens is 27-18 with a sparkling 2.92 ERA. In 2009, Owens went a combined 11-2 with a 2.10 ERA for Low-A West Virginia and High-A Lynchburg. This year, he went 12-6 with a league-leading 2.46 ERA for Double-A [...]

Right-hander Jeff Karstens (shoulder) threw a 50-pitch bullpen session this afternoon, and reported no ill effects. “It wasn’t great at first, but it got better as I went along,” Karstens said. He would like to pitch in a game, even if it’s just a relief outings, before the season is out. “I feel like I [...]