Pre-game News and Notes: Pirates @ Marlins 4/21

The Pittsburgh Pirates will face the Florida Marlins for the final of the three game series at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Fla., at 7:10 PM ET.

Right-hander James McDonald (0-1, 7.47 ERA)will start for the Bucs against righty Chris Volstad (0-1, 5.59 ERA)

McDonald allowed six runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and two walks over 4.1 innings during his last start.

Volstad allowed five earned runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts over 4.2 innings during his last outing.

News and Notes:

• Manager Clint Hurdle told Root Sports, “We’ve played 18 games. We struck out 180 times. If you’re any kind of math opportunist, that means we have six and a half games of nothing but strikeouts. That’s challenging. It’s not going to get us where we want to go.”
• Andrew McCutchen is back in the lineup tonight after missing the game yesterday due to personal reasons. McCutchen was visiting his father who was hospitalized.

McCutchen told Root Sports on the importance of his parents “They both made a lot of sacrifices for me growing up. They are the reason I’m here now. It’s good that they’re there. They’ve always been supportive of me. The least I could do is be there at least for a day, to show him that I’m here…It was good just to be able to see him. He’s going to be good as new in a few days.”

McCutchen told Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune, “It’s been on my mind a little bit. I’ve been thinking about him. I thought it would be better for me to see him physically to make him feel a little better, and I was able to do that.”

“He kicked me out, basically,” McCutchen said, grinning. “He was excited to see me. When my mom asked if I’d be there for a while, my dad looked and shook his head and told me, ‘Leave.’ It’s good to be back.”

Pirates:

Andrew McCutchen Cf, Jose Tabata CF, Lyle Overbay 1B, Neil Walker 2B, Garrett Jones RF, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Chris Snyder C, Josh Rodriguez SS, James McDonald RHP

Marlins:

Emilio Bonifacio LF, Omar Infante 2B, Hanley Ramirez SS, Gaby Sanchez 3B, Greg Dobbs LF, Mike Stanton RF, Scott Cousins CF, Brett Hayes C, Chris Volstad RHP