Burnett, Cervelli improving
ST. LOUIS — In 2012 and ’13 while with the Pirates, A.J. Burnett started 61 games and pitched 393⅓ innings. During that time, Pirates catchers caught a total of four runners — two each season — stealing, for caught-stealing percentages of 5 and 8 percent respectively.
Friday night, with Burnett on the mound, Francisco Cervelli threw out two of three St. Louis Cardinals attempting to steal in the first three innings alone.
“I’m not the quickest guy anymore to home,” Burnett said after the game. “I just try to vary my holds and get them flat-footed.”
Manager Clint Hurdle said there are times when Burnett needs to do what he needs to do to make a competitive pitch rather than shorten his delivery because of a baserunner.
“I thought he did a very good job of controlling the running game,” Hurdle said. “He started picking people off late in his career. He started holding the ball, doing things he never did.”
Burnett has pitched well in his first five starts, allowing only five earned runs in 31 innings for a 1.45 ERA, but has completed seven innings only once.
“It’ll come, the more times you get out there,” he said. “I just think, for me, six [innings] is all right but you need to get deeper into ballgames.”
The Pirates rank at about the major league average in caught-stealing percentage, but Cervelli’s 23 percent mark ranked him 17th out of 23 qualified catchers.
“When we've given him a chance, he's been very competitive behind the plate at throwing guys out,” Hurdle said. “More often than not, we haven't given him a fair fighting chance.”
Polanco at the top
For the second consecutive game, Gregory Polanco led off and Josh Harrison batted second against the Cardinals Saturday.
Harrison, who has led off for most of the season, entered Saturday batting .188 (6 for 32) in his past eight games. Polanco, usually the No. 2 hitter, is hitting .333 with five doubles and a homer in the past 13 games.
“The one thing that always resonates with me is [Harrison] hits with guys on base and he doesn't get many opportunities up there,” Hurdle said. “Not that it's going to flip it dramatically one-sided hitting second, but it's a different dynamic.”
Harrison hit .372 with runners in scoring position last season.
Polanco has become less predictable, Hurdle said, during the first pitch of the at-bat.
Last season, according to PITCHf/x data, Polanco took 84.4 percent of the first pitches he saw.
“It was maddening,” Hurdle said.
This year he has lowered it to 78.1 percent.
“And we're telling him going in, we don't want him to change a thing,” Hurdle said Friday. “This is him hitting first one time. That's it. And it's mainly about Harrison hitting behind him, and then [Andrew] McCutchen hitting behind the two of them.”