Pittsburgh Pirates Make a Roster Move For Series Finale

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a roster move for their last game against the Houston Astros.  They are also getting a bat back into the lineup.

Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Pirates surprised everyone and took it to the Houston Astros, winning by a score of 14-2.  The Bucs jumped on Houston starter Framber Valdez and put up six runs in just the first three innings.  Josh Bell had a two-run home run, and Kevin Newman posted a four hit game with a two run jack himself.

However, for as good as the offense was, the Bucs also got a solid start out of rookie Dario Agrazal.  Agrazal was recalled before the game to make the spot start.  This was his second start of the year after he threw four innings of two run ball against Miami last week.

He pitched even better last night against a much more impressive lineup.  Agrazal’s lone mistake came against George Springer to leadoff the bottom of the first.  Springer took the Panamanian pitcher deep.  Still, that was the only run that Agrazal gave up.  He went on to pitch six innings and struck out three.

Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates sent Agrazal back to Triple-A.  According to Rob Biertempfel of the Athletic, the team is bringing up Lithuanian relief pitcher Dovydas Neverauskas.  Biertempfel announced the move via Twitter.  This move makes sense as the team has options of Agrazal and can bring in some bullpen reinforcements for the series finale.

Although reinforcements might not be the best term for Neverauskas.  He has been up and down a few times this year and has not really fared all that well.  He has thrown 6.1 innings and has an ERA of 9.95.  One of the issues has been that he has walked five batters in those 6.1 innings.  Still, he at least adds a fresh arm in case of emergency.

The other news to come out today was the lineup for this afternoon’s game.  The Pittsburgh Pirates tweeted out the lineup card for today and on it batting second and playing in right field is Bryan Reynolds.

The breakout rookie missed the last two games because he fouled a ball off of his calf.  He was battling through tightness from the batted ball but was at least available off the bench last night.  It is good news to see him get back into the lineup.  Hopefully, he can help fuel a big series win against the Astros at 2:00 PM ET.