Good chance Kang, Palanco will have strong endings this season
There is seemingly an excellent chance that Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang and right fielder Gregory Polanco will have good endings to the season.
The Pirates wrap up the schedule this upcoming weekend with a three-game series against the Cardinals at St. Louis.
Polanco has a .316 career batting average at Busch with three home runs during his three-year career. On July 4, he became just the third Pirates player to have a two-home run game there since the stadium opened in 2006, joining Russell Martin in 2013 and Kang in 2015.
Last season, Polanco went 16-for-37 at Busch. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, is second-most hits that any visiting player has accumulated there in one season behind 17 by J.J. Hardy for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008.
Kang has battered the Cardinals during his first two seasons in the major leagues with a .341 batting average to go with seven home runs, four doubles and one triple in 27 games. The only player with a better average against the Cardinals over the last two years with at least 50 at-bats is Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto, who is hitting.352.
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Jacob Stallings singled with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning Friday night to give the Pirates a 6-5 victory over the Washington Nationals.
The catcher became the first Pirates rookie to come through with a game-ending hit with the bases loaded and two outs since Al Martin delivered in that fashion in the ninth inning on July 28, 1993. Martin singled off the Montreal Expos’ Tim Scott to give the Pirates a 3-2 victory at Three Rivers Stadium, making a winner of Mark Petkovsek.
The only other rookie to come through in that situation in the major leagues this season is Brett Eibner for the Kansas City Royals on May 28 against the Chicago White Sox.
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It has been a frustrating season for the Pirates as evidenced by Clint Hurdle being ejected six times this season, most of any National League manager. The Toronto Blue Jays’ John Gibbons leads all major league skippers by getting the thumb eight times.