Pre-game notes: How to handle a string of lefties

MIAMI -- The Pirates are in a stretch of facing five left-handed starters in six days, presenting manager Clint Hurdle with another factor to consider as he plays musical chairs with his lineups. In addition to performance against lefties and righties, Hurdle and his staff look at several other factors.

“We've got projectables,” he said. “I've got a lot of make-believe numbers.”

For example: Hurdle felt Pedro Alvarez matches up well with Justin Nicolino, tonight’s starter, and Chris Rusin, who will start Saturday for the Rockies, so he’ll play him in those games to keep him fresh. 

“He's shown the ability to swing the bat against some of the left-handers,” Hurdle said. “It's his finest season at this point in time with the numbers swinging against left-handed pitching. This gives him tonight, he's had two pinch-hit at-bats, gives him tonight, going to play tomorrow against Gray, there's some continuity to some things.”

Then there’s Gregory Polanco, out of tonight’s lineup but hitting much better against lefties lately. His average against lefties by month: .200, .143, .083, .273, .286. First half: .152. Second half: .308.

“As he started creating some confidence and some success before the All-Star game, I think that's when you see the bulk of these numbers picking up, the pitches per at-bat numbers have gone up,” Hurdle said. “We even take it farther than that. We break down the left-handers, the type of release points and the angle of the pitches and which ones he's seen better than not.”

That is another of their factors: Looking at release points, angle of pitch, profile of pitcher (does he pitch inside or outside more frequently). They use that both to set lineups and to identify where the batters might need some help.

***Hurdle said Class AAA Indianapolis catcher Elias Diaz has positioned himself to possibly be a September call-up, but mentioned Tony Sanchez’s name in the same answer.

***Hurdle didn’t bite on a question about Tyler Glasnow as a September call-up. “It wouldn't behoove him or me to say that he could help us this year, not right now,” he said.

***Josh Harrison is returning to a super-utility role for now, to help Hurdle get everyone in the lineup and to get him more regular at-bats.

“I think that's the way we're going to start it, that's what we've talked to Josh about coming back in,” Hurdle said. “There'll be maybe some reps in the outfield. Based on the cast of players that we've put together, based on some of the successes some of the players have had in certain roles. It's always a challenge when a player -- he was playing pretty good baseball when he got hurt. The hard part of this game is to plug right back in at that level. Usually it doesn't happen. It takes some time. I believe the best way for us is to get him involved in a variety of different ways and bundle some at-bats and get the legs back underneath him by using him in different roles.”