The Pittsburgh Pirates open a six-game home stand tonight when they host the Colorado Rockies. First pitch is 7:05pm. WISR airtime is 6:40pm. Chris Archer will start for the Bucs.
The Pirates picked up a half-game on the Chicago Cubs during their off-day Monday. The Cubs fell to Philadelphia 5-4. The Bucs are now 2-1/2 back in the National League Central. (The Pirates and Milwaukee would currently lead the National League Wild Card standings.)
Pirates first baseman Josh Bell has been named the National League Player of the Week for May 13th-19th. Bell claimed his first career Player of the Week Award, and is the first Pirates position player to take home weekly honors since Andrew McCutchen back in October 2017.
Among Bell’s highlights:
Batted .407 with six runs scored, 11 hits, a double, four home runs, 10 RBI and four walks over seven games played.
Among NL leaders, finished first in total bases (24); tied for first in hits, home runs and RBI; third in slugging percentage (.889); tied for third in extra-base hits (5); and fourth in on-base percentage (.484).
Recorded his third-career multi-homer game on Saturday night against the San Diego Padres and became just the second switch-hitter in franchise history to post three multi-homer efforts in a single campaign (Bobby Bonilla – 1990).
Became the first Pirates player since Brian Giles (August 1999) to register three multi-homer games in a single calendar month. Joined Bob Skinner (1959) as the only players in Club history to log three such games before June 1st.
Enters play today with 14 round-trippers on the season. His 14 homers through Pittsburgh’s first 43 games of the 2019 season were the most by a Pirates hitter since Hall of Famer Willie Stargell had 15 in 1973.