The injury bug continues to be unkind to the Pirates as the team announced Friday that Kyle Crick will be on the 10-day injured list with right triceps tightness. The listing is retroactive to Thursday.
Crick pitched one scoreless inning in both of his appearances to start the season. Crick’s most recent outing was Wednesday. He had one strikeout in the shutout frame.
Outfielder Jason Martin will take Crick’s place on the 25-man roster. Lonnie Chisenhall was hurt in the next-to-last game of the exhibition season and is still on the IL. Corey Dickerson joined him Thursday on the IL with a shoulder injury. Martin had seven hits, including two home runs in 28 spring-training at-bats.
Class AAA Indianapolis manager Brian Esposito surprised Martin with the news of his first big-league call-up.
“He disguised it pretty well,” Martin said Friday. “He told me I needed to sign a couple of papers for the trip that we were about to go on. Him breaking the news to me was pretty exciting.”
Martin played 12 games with the Pirates in spring training. That gave Pirates manager Clint Hurdle a few opportunities to see him.
“We liked the development over time from when we acquired him,” Hurdle said. “We like his presence in the box. There was more consistency with the at-bats. He has good hand-eye coordination, takes good routes to the ball on defense, has good ability to move on the bases, usable speed. I think that some confidence has grown on him.”
Colin Moran played left field Friday against the Cincinnati Reds. The previous time he played in left was in the 2017 season in the minors. Moran was 2 for 4 with 1 home run and 3 RBIs to start the season. His bat is part of the reason Hurdle put him in the lineup.
“When you lose [Corey] Dickerson’s bat, that’s a big deal,” Hurdle said. “Maybe there’s something we can harness by putting him out there. If anything goes wrong, that’s on me for giving him the chance. He was happy to go out there. I told him that there’s no such thing as a bad catch. Hit the cutoff man when you get it.”
Extra innings
• Joe Musgrove entered Friday looking to continue the hot start that the Pirates starters have had this season. In the first five games, the Pirates starters posted a 1.55 ERA, only giving up five earned runs over 29 innings. That is the best total in the National League entering Friday. The Toronto Blue Jays have the best in baseball at 1.41. The starting staff had surrendered one run in the previous 23 innings before Friday.
• Melky Cabrera was given an off Friday. He went 3 for 3 Thursday in his fourth start of the season. JB Shuck was scheduled to play in his place. Shuck went from being on the fringe of making the team to his third start in the six games the Pirates have played.
“We aren’t the only team with injuries,” Hurdle said. “Look at the Yankees. It’s nothing that we haven’t dealt with before. It’s just in the outfield. Nobody wants to hear about what you’ve dealt with or been challenged by. We have men that are ready to step up and play. The guys that are playing know that they’re being counted to perform.”
Nubyjas Wilborn: nwilborn@post-gazette.com and Twitter @nwilborn19.
First Published: April 5, 2019, 7:22 p.m.
Updated: April 5, 2019, 9:20 p.m.
