Pirates Manager Derek Shelton Gives Updates on Velasquez, Underwood

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been without Vince Velasquez since he suffered an injury on May 4 against the Tampa Bay Rays. It turns out, the righty suffered some right-elbow inflammation and was subsequently placed on the 15-day IL in response.

Up to that point, Velasquez had been on a pretty good run of starts.

Prior to his injury, Velasquez had pitched four consecutive games with at least six innings pitched, with no more than three earned runs given up in any start.

In addition, Velasquez managed to go 18 straight innings without giving up a run before he gave up an earned run against the Rays in the second inning.

After speaking with Derek Shelton prior to Saturday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Shelton advised the media that Velasquez will indeed begin his rehab assignment Saturday night for their Triple-A affiliate.

“He will start tonight in Indy, and then we will go from there. As you guys have heard me say ad nauseam, tomorrow is a really important day. He’s going to go out and throw tonight and we’ll see where he goes from there and kinda talk to Oscar [Marin] and go from there.”

The Pirates seem to be getting things back on track with both their pitching staff and position players, so having Velasquez rejoin this team would be a big boost to the staff.

Duane Underwood Jr. left Friday night’s game with what was being described as right-forearm tightness after he pitched 0.1 innings into the seventh.

Shelton also gave a little update on Underwood.

“He’s ok, he got evaluated last night, and he’ll get evaluated again today, and then we’ll kinda go from there. We think we’re in a pretty good spot with him.”

It seems as though the Pittsburgh Pirates have avoided some costly injuries.