Pittsburgh Pirates’ Locke will continue to start

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle has told reporters in pre-game comments today that Jeff Locke will still be in line to make his next scheduled start, as per Bill Brink of the Post-Gazette.

Jeff Locke will make his next start, Clint Hurdle said. "Ink."
— Bill Brink (@Bill_Brink2) June 2, 2015

Hurdle, known for showing considerable loyalty towards players, is allowing Locke to keep his spot in the rotation for at least one more start, on the heels of a disastrous start against the Padres that fated the Pirates to only splitting a very-winnable series. As a refresher, here are Jeff Locke’s current season numbers:

Rk	Date	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA
1	Apr 10	W,6-2	GS-6	W(1-0)	99	6.0	7	2	2	1	2	0	1	3.00
2	Apr 18	W,6-2	GS-8	W(2-0)	7	8.0	4	1	1	0	6	0	0	1.93
3	Apr 23	W,5-4	GS-5		4	5.0	7	4	4	3	7	0	0	3.32
4	Apr 28	L,2-6	GS-4	L(2-1)	4	3.2	8	6	5	3	5	0	0	4.76
May	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	DR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	HBP	ERA
5	May 5	L,1-7	GS-7	L(2-2)	6	7.0	7	4	4	2	5	2	0	4.85
6	May 10	W,4-3	GS-7		4	6.2	5	3	3	2	1	1	0	4.71
7	May 15	L,10-11	GS-4		4	3.2	6	5	5	3	4	2	0	5.40
8	May 20	L,3-4	GS-6		4	6.0	7	3	3	2	6	0	0	5.28
9	May 26	W,5-1	GS-6	W(3-2)	5	5.2	4	0	0	4	6	0	0	4.70
10	May 31	L,1-7	GS-4	L(3-3)	4	4.0	8	7	6	3	3	1	0	5.34
						55.2	63	35	33	23	45	6	1	5.34

Vance Worley fans may take umbrage with the news. Despite a couple of rough outings, Worley currently bests Locke with a 3.64 ERA and has looked steady in his relief appearances made since his demotion. One can speculate as to why Hurdle and Ray Searage, Jim Benedict, et al, may want to continue with Locke, but he clearly has not yet lost favor with the coaching staff despite losing it with Pittsburgh Pirates fans long ago.

Perhaps our friend Pat Lackey over at ‘Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? ‘ said it best.

Pat brings up a great point. The only other ready-made option is Worley, who seems to have lost the confidence of the coaching staff, having been passed over at the beginning of the year in favor of Locke, before starting the year as a starter with Charlie Morton‘s injury, and now being passed over again per se when a member of that same rotation is showing obvious ineffectiveness.

Many Pittsburgh Pirates fans can only hope that Locke’s leash grows ever shorter.

Next: PREVIEW: Pirates face the Champs

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