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Home , Chris Stratton, Chub Feeney, George Kontos, Hunter Strickland, Larry Baer, Pat Neshek

SF Giants Press Clips Sunday, July 2, 2017

San Francisco Chronicle Giants win fifth straight on 11 th - wild pitch Henry Schulman

PITTSBURGH — The Giants’ bid for a fifth straight win was fraught with trouble. Matt Moore and Hunter Strickland tried to walk the entire Pirates roster. The Giants were no- for five by a 5.58-ERA . made a running mistake you rarely see above high school ball.

Teams in winning streaks find ways to persevere, and the Giants did in a 2-1, 11-inning victory over the Pirates. The Giants matched their longest win streak of the season in a game settled by Daniel Hudson’s wild pitch as he threw ball four to .

Hudson had walked Denard Span with one out. A passed ball sent Span to second, and ’s bloop hit to left moved Span to third. Hudson struck out for the second out before bouncing ball four to Posey off the plate, allowing Span to score.

Sam Dyson, the Giants’ interim , struck out David Freese to complete the and ensure a rare Giants series win on the road.

In a bizarre bookend of wildness, Moore walked the bases loaded in the first inning and Strickland did the same in the ninth, and both escaped.

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In all, the Giants walked 10 Pirates in 11 innings, and none scored. Only twice in franchise history, dating to 1913, had the Giants walked 10 hitters and allowed just one run, in a 1987 win over the Braves and in a 1960 14-inning tie with the Cubs.

Strickland’s looking of Elias Diaz in the ninth on a 2-2 curveball that appeared inside sent the game into .

The Giants was solid, Strickland included. His two-out walk in the ninth to Player of the Month candidate Andrew McCutchen was not a bad move.

But he then walked David Freese on four pitches and Josh Bell to load the bases, the seventh, eighth and ninth walks allowed by the Giants.

Steven Okert issued the 10th walk, to leading off the 10th, but escaped with a double play.

Moore, the perpetual enigma, spent the afternoon dodging a career-high six walks over 51/3 innings, including the three in a row in the first inning.

He owes George Kontos. With the game tied 1-1, Kontos struck out to end the sixth after Moore’s fifth and sixth walks helped load the bases.

Moore allowed a run and got no decision as he lowered what was the league’s highest ERA from 6.04 to 5.78.

The Giants’ seventh-inning bid to break the tie ended on an unusual double play. With one out and Belt taking off from first on the pitch, hit an easy fly to center. Belt appeared to get deked by a middle infielder and did not know where the ball was.

He finally turned toward center, saw and returned to first. But his first step was lateral, to his left, and the Pirates challenged that Belt technically did not retouch second base on the way back. After a 3-minute review, the umps agreed and the inning was over.

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A Giants offense that scored 31 runs in its previous four games, 13 on Friday night, could not solve , the definition of a five-inning pitcher.

Kuhl had thrown exactly that many innings in each of his five prior starts. He had not completed seven innings in any of his first 29 career games.

The Giants did not have a hit until the sixth, when Austin Slater drove the inning’s first pitch over the center-field wall to end the no-hitter and tie the game 1-1.

McCutchen leaped for the ball and nearly caught it. The fans and some Pirates thought he had, too, raising their arms triumphantly while Slater stopped at second base. Only when McCutchen, on his knees, lowered his head in a “gosh darn it” pose did everyone realize Slater had his third .

San Francisco Chronicle Remembering purchase of Giants, with a twist John Shea

As the story went at the time, National League owners voted in 1992 to reject ’s plan to sell the Giants to a Florida group that would relocate them to St. Petersburg, Fla. National League president Bill White was an advocate of keeping the Giants in San Francisco as was Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley , who didn’t want the historic rivalry to disappear. In the end, Lurie’s only option was to sell to the group, and the Giants stuck around. And now we know more of the story. And that’s Katy Feeney ’s involvement. Feeney died in April at 68, just months after she retired as senior VP of club relations and scheduling for . She was a baseball executive for four decades and had Giants pedigree, the daughter of former general Chub Feeney , who was the nephew of Horace Stoneham , the owner who moved the team west in 1958. A celebration of life honoring Feeney was held at AT&T Park on Thursday, and White, 83, said at an earlier tribute in New York that Feeney was “instrumental in making sure the Giants remain in San Francisco” with her input to owners, and added that she deserves a plaque at the Hall of Fame.

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Lurie needed 10 of 13 votes from owners to approve his $115 million agreement with the Florida group, headed by Vincent Naimoli , but got just four. He sold to Magowan and Co. for $100 million. An expansion team was placed in St. Petersburg five years later. Feeney’s connection with the Giants turned out to be an asset for the team. Not that she wanted it in a headline. Co-worker Phyllis Merhige (they left their jobs together) said Feeney never sought credit, compliments or to be the center of attention and forever was humble and self-effacing. That’s probably why we didn’t hear about Feeney’s connection to the story until now.

Giants CEO Larry Baer , while not aware of her impact at the time, said Friday of White’s message, “Bill said she had a big influence. That doesn’t surprise me because Katy very much acted from her heart — she had a heart of gold — and mind. It would have been totally in character for her to do what she felt was right and not take any credit for it or receive any acknowledgment.” Feeney eventually was going to return to the Bay Area. She graduated from Cal and relocated to New York in the ’70s to work in the National League office after her father left the Giants to become NL president.

She was the ultimate behind-the-scenes force, and her title didn’t define her. She was a liaison in countless matters, settled many a battle and pooh-poohed friction. She was a trailblazer for women in baseball and did many jobs, including introducing players at postseason and All-Star news conferences to drawing up 30 teams’ schedules.

Milwaukee’s finest: What is it about former A’s moving to Milwaukee and becoming offensive terrors? Eric Sogard joined the Brewers in mid-May, homered in his first game and hasn’t stopped producing. After hitting .239 with a .294 on-base percentage in his six years in Oakland, Sogard’s at .338 with a .449 OBP in 41 games. Now along comes Stephen Vogt , acquired by the Brewers after the A’s designated him for assignment. In his third game, first at Miller Park, he homered twice in Friday’s 3-2 win over the Marlins. He received a curtain call, the first he remembers in his career.

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“You don’t have too many multihomer games in Oakland,” Vogt said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “unless you’re Khris Davis .” Around the majors: had 23 career wins more than Dusty Baker to begin the season, but their teams’ play has narrowed the gap. Heading into Saturday, Baker (1,813) was seven wins behind Bochy (1,820). … Curious why the Nationals still haven’t added a proven closer when the entire baseball world knew in the offseason there was a hole. They took a flier on Francisco Rodriguez , who was dumped by Detroit because of a 7.82 ERA, but need a legitimate ninth-inning presence if Baker is going to manage in the World Series. A couple of options: David Robertson , . The Nats could learn from the Cubs, whose acquisition of Aroldis Chapman before the trade deadline last year helped make history on Chicago’s North Side. ... The Orange County Register ran a story on Dodgers Trayce Thompson ’s long wingspan that he inherited from his NBA father, Mychal , as did his brother Klay of the Warriors. Long arms can help a batter reach pitches away but could be a hindrance on pitches in, and it’s an issue Thompson has tried to address. Wednesday, he hit his first big-league homer in nearly a year. The pitch, a 96 mph , was over the inner half of the plate. … The Giants’ three- game sweep of Colorado was part of an eight-game Rockies skid that knocked them from first place, and it didn’t help that the rotation ERA in the streak was 10.22. The starters repeatedly got pulled in the early innings, but manager Bud Black didn’t freak out. “You know what I call a bad outing? A bad outing,” he said during his visit to San Francisco. “We just sort of bunched them together.” … The Giants’ Jae-Gyun Hwang homered in his third big-league at-bat , and the A’s Franklin Barreto homered in his second big-league at-bat. It was that kind of week.

San Francisco Chronicle Giants Triple-A pitcher popped for steroids Henry Schulman

PITTSBURGH - Joan Gregorio, a 6-foot-7 starter, was pitching so well for Triple-A Sacramento the Giants were close to promoting him more than once in June to help the bullpen. He was even pulled from his warmups before a game in Las Vegas as the Giants weighed a move.

Had Gregorio not injured his back last week he might have been inside the Giants clubhouse Saturday morning when the league announced he failed a test for the anabolic steroid

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Stanozolol, resulting in a suspension without pay for the rest of the season.

The drug test taints the good numbers Gregorio posted for Sacramento. The 25-year-old had a 3.04 ERA in 13 starts.

A healthy Gregorio might have been the pitcher recalled from Sacramento on Saturday to replace Dan Slania. Instead, Chris Stratton got the call and arrived in time for the game.

Manager Bruce Bochy called the less experienced Slania a "stopgap guy" needed when went on the disabled list Wednesday. At least Slania got his first big-league inning Friday night before he was returned to Double-A Richmond. He pitched a perfect ninth to finish a 13-5 victory.

Stratton, the Giants' No. 1 draft pick in 2012, pitched twice in a brief April callup. He nearly got promoted again on June 1, which turned into a long, strange day for the pitcher and .

The Giants thought the league might rule on Hunter Strickland's suspension appeal that day. They were planning to option Arroyo to Sacramento and recall Stratton to got a fresh bullpen arm.

But the Giants took off for Philadelphia still unsure if Strickland would start serving his , so they told Stratton and Arroyo to sit tight at SFO until they got final word.

When the Giants learned Strickland would remain active, they had Arroyo fly to Philadelphia to remain with the Giants and sent Stratton to Albuquerque to rejoin the RiverCats.

"I thought I was going up three different times that day," Stratton said. "It's all part of the job."

Busted bat? The Giants had some fun with rookie Austin Slater after he appeared to take a broken bat to the plate in the eighth inning Friday night. A TV closeup appeared to show the bat splitting just above Slater's hands. If it was broken, his flyout to the warning track in center was all the more impressive.

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Asked if it really was busted, Slater smiled and said, "I can neither confirm nor deny." But he did say he has taken the bat out of service.

"It's going to the Hall of Fame," broadcaster Duane Kuiper said.

No. 1 broadcaster: Speaking of Kuiper, he gave color man Javier Lopez a chance to do some play-by-play Friday. Only Lopez did not exactly get advanced warning.

Kuiper made a between-innings run to the men's room, which is good hike from the broadcast booth in the PNC Park press box. Kuiper did not make it back in time, leaving Lopez alone for a few pitches when the next inning began.

"He ambushed me with some play-by-play," Lopez said. "Next time I'll be ready."

Arroyo, Upton back: Christian Arroyo, who has not played since he was hit in the hand by a pitch on June 14, was reinstated from the Triple-A disabled list and activated at Sacramento. Joining Arroyo is Melvin Upton Jr., the 12-year big-league outfielder whom the Giants signed to a minor-league deal after . Upton is back from a hand fracture he incurred when hit by a pitch in an extended-spring game in April.

Saturday’s game: Matt Moore goes Saturday in yet another bid to turn his season around. He had a really good start at Atlanta on June 20 (seven innings, three earned runs) then regressed with five earnies in 4 1/3 against the Mets on Sunday. He faces Pirates righty Chad Kuhl, who will see the same lineup the Giants used Friday night except for Ryder Jones at third instead of Jae-Gyun Hwang.

Lineups:

GIANTS (vs. RHP Chad Kuhl) Span CF

Panik 2B

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Pence RF

Posey C

Belt 1B

Crawford SS

Jones 3B

Slater LF

Moore P

PIRATES (vs. LHP Matt Moore) Come back later. I can’t read Clint Hurdle’s mind. Wait...this just in ...

Harrison 2B

Osuna LF

McCutchen CF

Freese 3B

Bell 1B

Diaz C

Polanco RF

Moroff SS

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Kuhl P

On deck Sunday at Pirates

10:35 a.m. NBCSBA Samardzija (3-9) vs. Williams (3-3)

Monday Off

Tuesday at Pirates

10:10 a.m. TV

Cain (3-7) vs. Norris (4-6)

Leading off 40-men: Denard Span had the first 40-hit month for a Giant since had 42 in May, 2013. The last Giant with at least 40 in June was Moises Alou in 2005.

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San Jose Mercury News Giants beat Pirates 2-1 thanks to wild finish in extra innings Daniel Brown

PITTSBURGH — On a day when an Austin Slater home run looked like an out, and when a routine fly ball turned into a base running misadventure for Brandon Belt, the Giants beat the with a fittingly wild finish.

Denard Span raced home on a wild pitch from Daniel Hudson with two out in the 11th inning, providing the go-ahead run in 2-1 victory Saturday at PNC Park. , acquired in a low- key trade on June 6, registered his first save with the Giants’ fill-in closer. With Mark Melancon on the disabled list, Dyson allowed a one-out single to Jose Osuna, but got dangerous Andrew McCutchen on a ground out and struck out David Freese.

It was Giants’ fifth win in a row, matching their season high. So ended an unusual sequence of events. The first oddity of the day came in the sixth inning. With the Giants still in search of their first hit against Chad Kuhl, rookie Austin Slater led off by mashing a ball toward dead center field.

Outfielder Andrew McCutchen, a former Gold Glover, raced back and crashed against the wall with a spectacular leap. And then? Well, it took a few moments to sort out.

The Pirates home crowd erupted in cheers, apparently believing McCutchen had made a terrific catch. The ovation lasted for so long that even Slater wasn’t so sure. He slowed as he rounded the bases and looked to second base umpire Dan Iassonga for guidance.

The catch was only an illusion: Not only did Slater’s blast clear the wall, McCutchen never so much as touched it.

But that wasn’t even the strangest play of the day.

With one out and Brandon Crawford at the plate in the seventh inning, Belt bolted for second on an apparent hit-and-run. Crawford hit the pitch from Tony Watson for an ordinary fly ball to center — but nothing was ordinary after that.

Belt, perhaps deked by an infielder, slid needlessly into second base at a time when he should have been in retreat. As he popped up from his slide, he realized McCutchen had caught the ball.

Unaware that the footwork of his pop-up slide had taken him a half-step beyond the bag, Belt made took a direct back to first base. The Pirates noticed the slip-up, though, and immediately called for a replay review, arguing that Belt should be out for not re-touching second on his way

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After a 3-minute examination of the angles, the MLB replay officials agreed.

In a less dramatic development, Giants starter Matt Moore delivered a solid outing amid an otherwise lousy season. He entered this game with an 8.39 ERA on the road — worst in the majors — but allowed only one-run over 5 2/3 innings.

Moore tied a career high with six walks, but half of those came during his shaky first inning. He rebounded to allow only an run-scoring single to Josh Bell in the third. Moore got relief help from George Kontos, who entered with two out in the sixth to strike out Josh Harrison with the bases loaded.

— In a transaction involving a pair of right-handers, the Giants recalled Chris Stratton from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned Dan Slania.

The Giants had told Slania in advance that his stay in the majors would be short. But it still came as a bit of a bummer when Manager Bruce Bochy had to send Slania down after the pitcher made his major league debut with a perfect ninth Friday.

“You hate to be a Debbie Downer after he makes his debut and threw so well,” Bochy said. “The nice thing is, he had a nice, clean inning and I think this should do a lot of good for his confidence.”

— On Friday, Denard Span led off the game with a home run and finished four hits and four runs. The last Giants player with a game like that? Bobby Bonds , who also did it in Pittsburgh, on June 6, 1973. — Span became the first Giants player to record at least 40 its in the month of June since Moises Alou in 2005. The last time a Giants player had 40 in any month was May 2013, when Marco Scutaro had 42.

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San Jose Mercury News Giants prospect suspended for season after drug test Daniel Brown

PITTSBURGH — Joan Gregorio , a minor pitcher ranked among the Giants’ top prospects, has been suspended without pay for the rest of the season after testing positive for a banned substance. In a statement released Saturday , the Major League Baseball commissioner’s office said Gregorio, who was on the Giants’ 40-man roster, was suspended after testing positive for Stanozolol. Joseph Colon of the was also suspended. The pitcher tested positive for the Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM) LGD-4022, a performance-enhancing substance. Gregorio, 25, was 4-4 with a 3.04 ERA in 13 starts for Triple-A Sacramento this season but was recently derailed by a back injury. In 74 innings, he had 61 and 35 walks. Opponents batted .235 against him.

Baseball America ranked Gregorio as the Giants’ seventh best prospect after the 2016 season . The 6-7, 180-pound native of the had been considered a candidate to be a September call-up later this season. The Giants did not immediately fill his open spot on the 40- man roster.

San Jose Mercury News Why I am hitting the exit ramp on a career that’s been nothing but terrific Mark Purdy

I never wanted to be a grumpy old sportswriter.

A sportswriter, yes. Old, there’s no option at some point. Grumpy, you have a choice.

That’s why it was always puzzling to me when, as a young newspaper guy, I would notice certain older writers in a football or baseball press box who were perpetually cranky and out of sorts.

“Why are they so grumpy?” I would ask.

Writing about sports is an awesome way to make a living. You witness remarkable drama, meet unforgettable people, tell stories that are inspiring and fun and stupid and terrific and hilarious and amazing. But it takes a toll. Working nights and weekends is not family friendly for your

12 own family. Over the years, walking out of empty arenas at midnight and then across a dank parking lot before a long ride home tends to become less and less romantic.

So does changing planes in Atlanta at 3 a.m.

So does a laptop keyboard freezing up for no apparent reason, with the office calling and wondering where your column is.

So does waiting 15 minutes for an athlete to come out of the shower with deadline approaching, only to have him not comment, when you could have spent those 15 minutes writing.

So does a coach lying to you when he knows that you know he’s lying to you.

So does riding a packed media bus at the Winter Olympics for an hour up to the mountains in Russia with a sleeping, drooling and oblivious fellow journalist leaning on your shoulder.

It all adds up. After a while, I understood how those old guys could grow grouchy and crabby. I still never wanted to become one of them.

Hey, sportswriters whine. Doesn’t everyone at every job? But I pledged that if I ever drifted over the border line from normal grousing into full-on grumpy territory, I would quit. And recently, I’ve discovered myself drifting dangerously into the demilitarized zone. The border crossing has loomed way too close. I never want to cross it.

So I’m blowing the whistle on myself. My last sports column will appear Aug. 6 in this newspaper and online. Then it will be off to new adventures. My life partner, the Wife of the Year every year since 1977, recently retired from her own job as the best high school art teacher in San Jose. We plan to enjoy unlimited weekends, a social calendar in May and October that won’t need to account for playoff possibilities, and travel that does not involve her waiting in a hotel or dormitory room while I’m covering weightlifting.

Just to be clear, I am not retiring from writing. There are potential book projects and other journalistic undertakings in my future. It’s simply time to leave behind the Mercury News, East Bay Times and the daily sports grind. I’m very grateful to my Bay Area News Group bosses for allowing me to exit on my own terms rather than asking me to leave because they’re sick of my deadline-crashing, occasionally sideways column-writing methods.

Primarily, though, I’m grateful to readers who have kept me in business over the decades with their interest, input, kind words, criticism and insults. They have kept me honest and alert. I have been lucky to have so many people take a few minutes out of their day to ponder my blather.

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I won’t lie. The changes in my profession, given the advent of 24/7 online journalism, have also been a challenge to manage. It has become pretty weird out there. There seems to be a diminishing demand for step-back perspective and primarily an appetite for whatever has been hot in the past five minutes or what might be hot in the next five minutes — with all of it downloaded instantly onto mobile apps.

Nothing wrong with that. But it has been an adjustment and I’m not sure for the better. A good example was my recent strange experience after a Warriors playoff victory.

During a televised postgame news conference, I engaged in a back-and-forth with Draymond Green that I regarded as a productive professional exchange. I asked Green how he was keeping his temper under control against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Green somehow took the question as an insult, and chastised me. I responded by politely pressing him for an answer. Green finally offered a sincere one with insight. It allowed me to write a better column. That has happened to me and other writers many, many times over the years with various players in various sports.

The difference was, because this is 2017, the exchange with Green was broadcast live and subsequently shared online in a video clip, accompanied by blog posts or memes about Green “getting into it with a reporter.” The clip suddenly became the story. It drew more internet traffic than my eventual piece about how Green was not allowing any tantrums to sidetrack the Warriors’ championship path as had occurred a year earlier. In other words, the process of reporting to help form a perspective … had actually superseded the perspective itself.

Hey, the marketplace is the marketplace. But it’s definitely a shift in how people experience sports, with upsides and downsides. The online world allows new storytelling methods through podcasts and video. I work with colleagues who do it fantastically well — go to mercurynews.com and check — and they have helped me stumble through some video production that I have truly enjoyed.

In fact, my original plan was to stay in this job a while longer if I could cut back on writing and do more video work on our website’s digital platforms. But that wasn’t going to be possible. The bosses were nice enough to broach the idea of having me write columns part-time. I rejected that idea because with our raft of Bay Area professional and college teams producing so much news every day, it requires a columnist’s full attention. There is no way to do the job part-time because you need to be on top of things every day.

So I have decided that in early August, I will file my last drivel. Why am I telling you about all this now? Why not just wave a quick goodbye then? My benevolent and tolerant superiors have

14 suggested that before I go, readers might enjoy a series of columns about the top moments, interviews, athletes, coaches and assignments from my last 33 years in the Bay Area. After some thought, I accepted the suggestion. I’m so old that I frequently have people tell me they have been reading my columns since they were in grade school (and then remind me why I was dead wrong about the 49ers or Raiders or Giants or A’s or whatever).

Ultimately, I agreed with the bosses that it could be fun to re-examine the last several decades of Northern sports history — plus events I have covered elsewhere — with fresh new insights in a retrospective context. It has been quite a trip that began long before I set foot in San Jose and the Bay.

In 1969 as a high school senior in Ohio, my hometown sports editor sent me to a neighboring town for a prep football season opener, my first paid journalism assignment. Slight problem, though. There were no game programs, which meant no means to identify which players were which. I was panicking.

“Go see Bob over there,” the athletic director told me. “His son plays on the team. Bob knows all the uniform numbers.”

I introduced myself to Bob. He agreed to help me, on one condition. I needed to mention his son in my game story.

“OK,” I said. “What position does he play?”

“He’s the starting right offensive guard,” Bob said.

Do you know how difficult it is to squeeze the name of an offensive guard into a football game story? I learned to improvise. For the next 48 years.

It has been a gas. The journey has taken me to five continents, Lambeau Field, Fenway Park, a bowling alley in Cuba with Fidel Castro, a golf course with Neil Armstrong, and a cove with Willie McCovey.

For the next four Sundays, I’ll share the best of those stories with the readers who have allowed me to tell them. But I’ll also write regular weekday columns about the struggling Giants, the A’s ballpark situation and whatever else is topical. My plan is to run through the finish-line tape, not cruise listlessly to the end. Only grumpy old sportswriters would do that. We don’t allow them in these parts.

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MLB.com Wild pitch gives Giants win in 11 innings Chris Haft and Jonathan Toye

PITTSBURGH -- Pirates right-hander Daniel Hudson crouched on the infield and slammed his fists into the grass -- a gesture of frustration. He had battled throughout the 11th inning, but with two outs and runners on the corners, his full-count slipped past catcher Elias Diaz , allowing Giants center fielder Denard Span to score from third. And that moment lifted San Francisco to a 2-1 extra-innings win Saturday at PNC Park. Before the extra-inning dramatics, Saturday's game was an unexpected pitchers' duel. Left- hander Matt Moore entered the game with the highest ERA (6.04) among qualified starters in the National League. Right-hander Chad Kuhl 's ERA wasn't far behind at 5.58. But Kuhl flirted with a no-hitter before he allowed a home run in the sixth. He still completed six innings for the first time since April 18, limiting the Giants to two hits on 75 pitches. His day ended when the Pirates pinch-hit John Jaso for Kuhl in the sixth. Full Game Coverage Moore was less efficient, needing 104 pitches to complete 5 2/3 innings. He became the latest victim of Andrew McCutchen 's resurgence at the plate, as McCutchen doubled in the third and scored on Josh Bell 's single. That was the only run Moore allowed, the first time since May 13 that he only allowed one run. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Opportunities lost: The Pirates failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity to walk off in the ninth. Giants right-hander Hunter Strickland issued three straight walks to load the bases with two outs. But Strickland battled back to strike out Diaz, who stranded nine batters on the day. The Pirates had other chances to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard with the bases loaded in the first and sixth, but failed to score in either frame. In total, the Pirates stranded 15 runners. Breaking up the no-hit bid: Kuhl had a no-hitter going into the sixth, but leadoff hitter Austin Slater changed that with one big swing of the bat. Slater drove Kuhl's first pitch just over the center-field wall, past McCutchen's glove and into the bullpen. Slater's game-tying homer had an exit velocity of 101.5 miles per hour and a launch angle of 35 degrees and traveled a projected 403 feet, according to Statcast™ . WHAT'S NEXT Giants: Right-hander , who's scheduled to start Sunday's series finale beginning at 10:35 a.m. PT, has extensive experience against the Pirates, dating back to his. National

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League Central days with the Cubs. In 23 career games (12 starts) facing Pittsburgh, he's 4-4 with a 2.90 ERA. Pirates: Right-hander Trevor Williams will start Sunday in the series finale against the Giants at 1:35 p.m. ET at PNC Park. Williams continues to prove worthy of the spot he has claimed in the rotation, posting a 3.91 ERA in his last nine starts. Tuesday may have been his best effort, as he held the Rays to two runs while striking out seven and pitching into the eighth inning.

MLB.com Samardzija seeking another strong start Jonathan Toye

Pirates right-hander Trevor Williams was a late addition to the rotation, filling in for Jameson Taillon after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. But Williams did enough to stay in the rotation when Taillon returned and has given the Bucs two straight quality starts. He will try to make it three in a row Sunday against Jeff Samardzija and the Giants in the series finale at PNC Park.

Williams joined the rotation May 8. After a shaky start, Williams has settled in his new role. He allowed three runs in six innings June 21 against the Brewers and limited the Rays to two runs in seven innings Tuesday, pitching into the eighth for the first time in his Major League career. He credits fellow starters Gerrit Cole and Ivan Nova, in part, for his recent success. Full Game Coverage

"It's just watching the veterans do it," Williams said. "There are a lot of veterans in this clubhouse and it's fun to watch them."

Samardzija is also coming off back-to-back quality starts, allowing five runs in 13 1/3 innings in that span. He has completed six innings in 13 of his 16 starts and entered Saturday ranked seventh among National League pitchers with 105 innings. Things to know about this game

• Andrew McCutchen enjoyed one of the best months at the plate in Pirates history, slashing .411/.505/.689 in June. He led the National League in batting, OPS (1.193) and on-base

17 percentage. He became just the 11th Pirates player to top .500 in on-base percentage in any month since 1913. Part of his success has been his ability to lay off sliders. McCutchen whiffed at 16.5 percent of sliders in April and May but he reduced that number to 3.3 percent in June, according to Statcast.

• Jordy Mercer is expected to return to the lineup after a scheduled off-day Saturday. The Pirates had an 11-game hitting streak in the month of June, but has recorded one hit in his last four games. He still slashed .297/.347/.462 in June.

• Hunter Pence will look to continue his success at the plate at PNC Park. His .333 career average entering Saturday was tied with Anthony Rizzo for the second-highest average among active players at PNC Park behind Albert Pujols (.376).

MLB.com Prospect Gregorio suspended for season Chris Haft

PITTSBURGH -- Giants pitching prospect Joan Gregorio was suspended for the rest of the season Saturday after testing positive for stanozolol, a performance-enhancing substance. The Commissioner's Office made the announcement. Gregorio was ranked San Francisco's No. 8 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. The 25-year-old right- hander, who recently went on the seven-day disabled list with a back injury, had a 4-4 record with a 3.04 ERA for Triple-A Sacramento. As a member of the Giants's 40-man roster, Gregorio was a leading candidate to be recalled to San Francisco later in the season. Full Game Coverage

The 6-foot-7, 180-pound Gregorio represented the Giants at MLB's Rookie Career Development Program in January.

Giants general manager Bobby Evans said in a text message that he felt "obviously disappointed" to receive the news about Gregorio. "I hope he learns a valuable lesson and doesn't put himself in this position again. We support the testing and education policies and it's critical that players abide by them."

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• Center fielder Denard Span became the first Giant to amass 40 hits during June since Moises Alou in 2005. Span's hit total was the highest for a Giant in any calendar month since Marco Scutaro had 42 hits in May 2013. Span compiled a .374/.427/.542 slash line for June with six doubles, three triples, two home runs and 21 runs scored. • Exchanging right-handers, the Giants recalled Chris Stratton from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned Dan Slania to the Minors. Giants manager Bruce Bochy explained that Stratton would have been summoned instead of Slania last Wednesday when Mark Melancon went on the disabled list. But Stratton had just pitched 4 1/3 innings Tuesday and was temporarily unavailable.

Slania made one appearance for the Giants, throwing a scoreless ninth inning in his first Major League game to conclude Friday night's 13-5 victory over Pittsburgh.

"You hate to be Debbie Downer after [Slania] made his debut," Bochy said. "But this could do his confidence a lot of good and get him back on track."

Slania was 1-9 with a 6.44 ERA in 15 games at Double-A and Triple-A before joining the Giants.

Yahoosports.com Aaron Judge is defying everything we know about baseball statds Chris Cwik

Everyone knew outfielder Aaron Judge was going to be a unique player. His height told us that much. Only a handful of players have reached the majors at 6-foot-6 or taller. Even fewer have stuck around long enough to make a significant impact.

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Those who lasted did so with a similar skill set. They supplied elite power, excellent patience and a ridiculous amount of strikeouts. The same should have been expected of Judge. In many ways, that’s been the case. Judge is tall, powerful and whiffs often.

But there’s one key area where Judge is completely defying the odds. Despite a strikeout rate that places him among the league’s worst, Judge is hitting an incredible .331 through his first 328 plate appearances.

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Consider this: 28.5 percent of all Judge’s plate appearances have ended in strikeouts. That ranks in the top-15 this season. Judge went into Thursday’s game with a higher strikeout rate than outfielder Kyle Schwarber — and Schwarber was sent to the minors after hitting .171.

Schwarber may be an extreme example, but his performance highlights just how difficult it is to hit for average when you strike out at such an extreme rate. Only one hitter in MLB history has posted a .300 average or higher while striking out in at least 28 percent of his plate appearances. Melvin Upton hit exactly .300 in 2007. He had a 28.1 percent strikeout rate.

If you want to go further back, Mark Reynolds flirted with .300 in 2006, hitting .299 with a 26.4 percent strikeout rate. That same year, Ryan Howard hit .313 despite a 25.7 percent strikeout rate.

Judge is whiffing more than all three players. He’s hitting .331.

The correlation between a high strikeout rate and a low batting average is obvious. If a player swings and misses a lot, he’s not making contact often. If he’s not making contact, he’s not putting the ball in play. If he’s not putting the ball in play, he’s not getting a lot of hits.

Most of that is true for Judge. Judge’s Contact%, which measures how often a player makes contact with balls both in and out of the strike zone, is just 69.3 percent. That’s the 12th lowest rate in the league.

When Judge has made contact, though, balls are falling in. Judge has 89 hits, which put him near the top of the league. One of the main factors contributing to that is Judge’s batting average on balls in play, or BABIP.

BABIP measures how often a ball put in play goes for a hit. It was initially believed the average BABIP should be about .300, but there are some exceptions. Speedy, contact hitters, like Ichiro Suzuki can post higher BABIPs since they put the ball in play often and use their speed to beat out hits. Hulking sluggers, like Adam Dunn, can post lower BABIPs since most of his balls are hit in the air, and easier to field.

Dunn’s career BABIP was .286. Ichiro, who is considered a pretty big outlier, has a career BABIP of .339. Judge leads baseball in 2017 with a .419 BABIP.

That figure isn’t just high for this season, it’s historically significant. Only three players in MLB history have ever posted a BABIP higher than .419. had a .423 BABIP in 1923, George Sisler had a .422 BABIP in 1922 and Rogers Hornsby had a .422 BABIP in 1924.

While that’s tremendous company, Judge’s high BABIP makes evaluating his season complicated. Nothing in Judge’s profile suggests he should post abnormally high BABIPs. He’s more Dunn than Ichiro at the plate. The fact that’s he’s been able to do so thus far suggests he’s benefitted from a fair amount of good luck.

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It’s also plausible that Judge has been locked in all year. If he’s hitting the ball hard and seeing the ball extremely well, perhaps his BABIP should be exceptional. It’s at least something to consider.

But the problem with that argument is that it’s unreasonable to expect Judge to sustain this level of success. Ruth, Sisler and Hornsby all reached their extreme BABIPs with much lower strikeout rates than Judge. Ruth’s 13.3 percent strikeout rate was the highest of the trio.

On top of that, none of those players were able to sustain those numbers for long. Both Hornsby and Sisler were able to post one more year with a BABIP over .400, but that was it. Ruth finished with a career .340 BABIP. Sisler had a .346 BABIP. Hornsby was the best of the bunch, posting a .365 BABIP over his career. During Judge’s brief career (he played in 27 games in 2016), he’s posted a .392 BABIP.

Ty Cobb is the only player in MLB history who could sustain an abnormally high BABIP for a lengthy period. Cobb’s name appears six times on the list of the top-30 BABIPs in MLB history. The stat doesn’t go back further than 1913, so there’s no data for Cobb’s first eight years in the league. He retired with a career .378 BABIP.

What does that mean for Judge? Unless he’s the next coming of Ty Cobb, regression is likely to hit. That’s obvious. As good as Judge has been, rare is the player who can post a .331/.451/.699 slash line over a full season. His batting average is going to decline.

How much worse will it get? Everything about Judge suggests he fits the profile of the hulking slugger. That doesn’t mean his BABIP will suddenly drop below .300. , for example, has a career BABIP of .320. Even with that, Stanton’s career batting average is .266.

Even if Judge were to hit .250 over a full season, he would still be a valuable player. His power is elite, and he walks enough to post high on-base percentages. Even when you factor in extreme regression, he’s an above-average player. Right now, though, he’s playing like an MVP.

History screams that Judge is an outlier. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest he’s mortal, and bound to fall back to Earth. And yet, he’s excelling now, leaving a sliver of hope that maybe Judge is just incredibly unique.

Everyone expected that. No one expected this.

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ESPN.com Who’s who in this year’s international signing period Keith Law

The 2017-18 international amateur free-agent signing period begins July 2, meaning teams can officially sign the players they've had locked up under verbal agreements for months or even years now. (I've heard there are players who won't be eligible until 2020 who already have deals in place, meaning teams are making offers to 13-year-olds.) This is the first such signing period under the new collective bargaining agreement that puts hard caps on what teams can spend on international amateurs, although teams can trade for a little extra cap room with clubs who don't intend to use all of their space.

Franco, the nephew of Willy Aybar and the brother of current minor leaguers Wander Javier and Wander Alexander Franco, is a big-bodied shortstop with present strength in a compact frame, a bat-first prospect. He's a switch-hitter with plus bat speed and raw power from both sides already, and a solid-average runner who shows good quickness in the field going in both directions. He also has a plus arm. He's credited for having an advanced feel for the game for his age, instincts that will at least let him start out at shortstop -- although his body type points to a more likely move to third. He's expected to sign with the Rays for one of the largest bonuses in the class.

Flores is also a switch-hitter and really stands out for his throwing, both for his pure arm strength and for his quick transfer from glove to throwing hand. He probably grades as a 70 arm right now with 50 receiving, as he catches the ball deep and needs to be more aggressive in getting after pitches. At the plate, he has a more compact, line-drive sort of swing from the left side, while right-handed he nearly bars out and creates extra length with some uppercut to the path but also shows more raw power. He's expected to sign with the Red Sox.

It's a weak pitching class overall but the consensus top arm is Brazilian right-hander Eric Pardinho , who is expected to sign with the Blue Jays and garners universal praise for his command and feel for pitching. Pardinho throws a 90-94 mph fastball now in a four-pitch mix that includes a power curveball with good angle and spin. I had one scout say he has a "trackman fastball" that plays above its velocity because of its own spin rate. Although he's just 5-foot-9, he's strong for his age and he's both athletic and flexible, pitching with a delivery that reflects both attributes and that he repeats extremely well for present command. He offers less projection than the typical 16-year-old international pitcher, but is also advanced enough that he could probably go to a full-season league at age 17.

Shortstop Ronny Mauricio is the more stereotypical July 2 signing -- a skinny, tall, projectable Dominican infielder with great instincts on defense. He's a switch-hitter with good feel for

22 squaring up the ball and, in the field, he has a plus arm and makes plays look easy despite the fact he's not a runner or a fast-twitch athlete. There seems to be consensus that he has the ability to hit, but there is concern about when and how much he's going to fill out physically so he can still make hard contact when he's facing better pitching in the minors. He's expected to sign with the Mets.

Shortstop Jelfry Marte is a smaller-framed, wiry kid, yet another switch-hitter and a defense- first prospect now whose bat is a question mark. The general consensus is that he'll stay at short thanks to great defensive fundamentals, including his approaches to ground balls and his arm swing, and to his soft hands. At the plate, he's more likely to be a hitter for average than for power, although it's all physical projection anyway. He's expected to sign with the Twins.

The Yankees are expected to sign two top prospects on Sunday -- Venezuelan center fielder Everson Pereira and Dominican infielder Ronny Rojas . Pereira is a solid athlete with a lot of average or slightly above-average tools but nothing plus, projecting to stay in center and maybe be an above-average defender there. He has a clean, simple right-handed swing that should produce contact and maybe some power. Rojas is a shortstop now who probably moves to second base in the long run. His carrying tool is his bat; he's got a loose, easy, line-drive swing from both sides of the plate. He’s solid mechanically without plus bat speed, better from the left side presently than the right with good feel to hit and a chance for average power. His actions in the field are sound but his lateral range and arm strength are what will push him over to second.

Outfielder Julio Rodriguez is a future corner outfielder with huge raw power and one of the fastest bats in the class. He's a 40-grade runner with a plus arm, so he'll end up in right field, and puts on a show in batting practice with big power. But in games, he has been inconsistent, sometimes showing the ability to shorten up and sometimes showing way too much swing-and- miss. There's length to his swing and some drift that leads to timing issues, which would explain the issues he has had making contact in games. He's expected to sign with Seattle.

ADVERTISEMENT A few other names who popped up: The Phillies are expected to sign Dominican infielder Luis Garcia , considered the best defensive shortstop in the class, a plus runner with a limited offensive projection. … The Brewers are expected to sign center fielder Carlos Rodriguez from Venezuela, an above-average runner who should stay in center and showed an advanced feel to hit for his age. … The Red Sox are also expected to sign Danny Diaz , a Venezuelan shortstop who will end up at third base; he’s a raw hitter with some length to the swing but big present raw power. … The Phillies are also expected to sign a couple of under-the-radar Colombian pitchers, notably right-hander Victor Vargas , a well-built 6-foot-1 pitcher who will turn 17 in

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September and shows average velocity with an advanced feel to pitch.

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