Teams from opposite ends of Pennsylvania and heading in opposite directions face off this weekend when the Philadelphia Phillies visit the Pittsburgh
Pirates at PNC Park.
Philadelphia (47-37) has won four games in a row and six of its past seven to sit 10 games above .500 for the first time since late 2011.
“I think it’s a nice milestone and one that we can celebrate. We’ll use it as fuel and motivation
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The Phillies have put themselves in solid contention in the National League East. The series opener Friday against Pittsburgh launches a four-city, 11-game
road trip that leads into the All-Star break.
“We never really doubted ourselves,” said starter Aaron Nola, who picked up the win Wednesday in a 4-1 victory over Baltimore. “Other people thought we were
in a rebuilding year this year. We got good additions to the team.
“We have veteran guys who have been on winning teams and won championships. They know what it takes to win, and I think we’re following them.”
The Pirates (40-46), meanwhile, sit at a season-low six games below .500 and are in danger of being caught by last-place Cincinnati in the NL Central. They
are opening an 11-game homestand leading into the All-Star break.
Pittsburgh is coming off a 2-4 West Coast trip, the final three games of which it was swept in Los Angeles by a combined score of 31-8. The Dodgers had
10 homers among 41 hits in those games.
“I think we definitely could have played better, but we also ran into a really hot team too,” Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer told MLB.com. “In the whole
grand scheme of things, we haven’t played very well and we’re six games under
.500 right now. Things could be a lot worse.
“That’s one of the bright spots that you can look at. … We need to put four or five games in a row
Nate Solder Jersey Giants , and win four or five good games in a row, then see what happens after that.”
The Phillies qualify as another hot team. They also swept a four-game series against the Pirates in April.
“We’ve just got to keep working,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “The game shows you where you need to improve. It gives you immediate feedback. We
got a lot of immediate feedback.”
Two Pittsburgh starters, Chad Kuhl and Joe Musgrove, were hurt during the road trip.
On Friday, Pirates right-hander Trevor Williams (6-6, 4.22 ERA) is scheduled to start against Philadelphia righty Nick Pivetta (5-7, 4.66).
Williams has lost two straight starts since a June 18 win when he pitched seven scoreless, one-hit innings in a 1-0 game against Milwaukee. That was his
first victory in more than a month.
He is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in two career starts against the Phillies, including a no-decision April 22 when he gave up two runs in six innings of an
11-inning Pirates loss.
Pivetta’s last outing wasn’t a start. He came in to pitch a scoreless 13th inning Sunday when the Phillies had to go deep into their pitching staff in a
4-3 win over Washington. It was his first relief appearance since 2015 when he
was in Class A.
Pivetta has one no-decision in his career against Pittsburgh.
Every marriage has its ups and downs. So New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft urged
everyone not to read too much into any reported discord in his organization.
Kraft praised Bill Belichick on Monday when asked about some of the unusual decisions the coach made in the Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia.
As for any split among owner, coach and star quarterback
Cheap Lorenzo Carter Jersey , Kraft said he has learned to work with ”a strong and powerful coach.”
”The so-called tension gets greater when you lose,” Kraft added.
And with Brady, Kraft noted that the ”feeling of a loss is worse than the feeling of a win” in a Super Bowl, except for that first victory.
”I think Tommy is in that category.”
Kraft spoke to media at the NFL owners meetings and was grilled about everything from whether All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski will return for another
season (Kraft never really answered, though he said he’d seen Gronkowski at the
team facility this offseason) to why cornerback Malcolm Butler, now with the
Titans, was benched for the Super Bowl.
Mostly, the questions were about friction in New England. Kraft said he has met with both Belichick and Brady, something he does regularly.
”I have faith in Bill as coach,” Kraft said. ”I don’t think there’s anyone (else) who has the football knowledge and expertise and understands personnel
and is able to merge those. As someone privileged to own one of these teams, I
encourage him to keep going with his instincts.
”This is not an energy firm where you go from A to B to C to D. I think Bill’s structure has been pretty good most of the time and has worked pretty
well.”
Kraft admitted he was perplexed that Butler
Adidas Henrik Sedin Jersey , a Super Bowl hero in the 2015 game, didn’t play against the Eagles. But he acknowledged he was looking at it from a fan’s
viewpoint.
”There’s no doubt in my mind that if he is doing it for the right reason,” Kraft said of Belichick’s decision, ”I support it. I haven’t had one instance
where Bill has done any decision that was not in the best interest of the
team.”
While noting that Brady had an unparalleled season as a 40-year-old quarterback, including his third career MVP award, Kraft also recognized how
difficult the final game of the 2017 season was for Brady.
”You don’t get public with your feelings two weeks after a Super Bowl loss,” he said.
Kraft got emotional when concluding the session by talking about lending the team’s airplane to students from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland,
Florida so they could attend the ”March For Our Lives” in Washington on the
weekend.
”When they called and asked would you send a plane and help take the wounded kids and their families and kids who couldn’t go on a normal plane, we didn’t
hesitate a minute,” Kraft said. ”Because think of it, all of you who have
kids
Cheap Ryan Switzer Jersey , think about losing one of your kids. You wake up in the morning and they go to school and don’t come home at night.
”I just thought this is a way for our organization to be able to reach out to those people who are hurting bad. I can’t think of a worse, unnatural thing of
losing your child.”
Then Kraft, a donor to the Trump campaign, criticized the legislative process and current environment in the nation’s capital.
”I have a big problem with what’s going on in Washington and the divisiveness,” he said, ”and no one’s listening to one another and forgetting
where you stand on this issue.”
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