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Neal Huntington Show: Morton In A Holding Pattern

PITTSBURGH (KDKA 93-7 The Fan)- Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington joined Greg Brown Sunday for his weekly show on The Fan. Brown asked about the status of Charlie Morton, who is dealing with a sports hernia and made a recent rehab start at Class AA Altoona.

"He'll probably be in a holding pattern, we'll try to keep him sharp, try to keep him stretched out and he can be a starter for us if we need somebody to step in. But there will come a point in time in September we'll have to make a decision," Huntington said. In other injury news, Huntington said that Stolmy Pimentel's disabled list time is up, and will probably be added to the roster Monday.

There will be an off day Thursday after the series in St. Louis. Brown asked what impact that will have on the starting rotation.

"The conversation to this point in time has been to just give everybody that day, which isn't a bad thing at this point in the year, rather than to try and yellow-line or red-line some guys and juggle the rotation around. It is something that we'll continue to take a look at, but as we sit here today, the thought is just give everybody the day and keep them on turn," Huntington said.

The Pirates have a 27-37 road record as they start a 10-game road trip beginning Labor Day. Huntington said that while a lot of teams struggle on the road, the Pirates need to do better if they want to advance in October.

"There's no question we've played much better at home than we have on the road, but if we're going to advance deep into the postseason, we're going to have to make sure we win some games on the road as well," Huntington said.

They looked at the remaining schedule, in which 17 of the final 27 games are against teams with a losing record.

"Our schedule's in our favor, but we're still going to have to play good baseball to put ourselves in position to win one of those wild card spots or still the focus is that division," Huntington said.

The Neal Huntington Show: Morton In A Holding Pattern

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