PITTSBURGH -- Cole Tucker and his father are big-time baseball glove collectors, with Tucker estimating they have “probably 100” at their house in Arizona. Tucker still brings two gloves to the dugout every game: one for the outfield and one for the infield.

He hasn’t had to use the infield glove this year, because all of his appearances have come in right or center field. And the gloves he’s wearing in the outfield? Well, those aren’t actually his.

Tucker ordered new mitts for the outfield from Rawlings, but they haven’t arrived since he moved out of the infield for the first time in his career last month. Instead, he’s been using two: one given to manager Derek Shelton as a gift from Twins center fielder Byron Buxton -- it says “Shooter” on it, which is what friends call Shelton -- and another that former Pirate Starling Marte gave to closer Keone Kela.

The glove from Buxton has platinum labels on it, representing the Rawlings Platinum Glove Award that Buxton won in 2017.

“Which I haven’t earned,” Tucker pointed out.

The loaner from Marte, a Gold Glove Award winner in Pittsburgh from 2015-16, is covered in gold.

“Which I also haven’t earned,” Tucker quickly quipped.

But Tucker is clearly getting more comfortable in the outfield, as he showed during the Pirates’ 7-2 win on Friday night. On one ball hit to left-center, Tucker loudly called off left fielder Bryan Reynolds -- and it came naturally for the recently converted shortstop.

“I didn’t think anything about it. When I caught it and threw it in, I thought to myself, ‘Did I just call him off on a ball he could’ve easily caught?’” Tucker said. “But it was just second nature and kind of happened. I’m just trying to be aggressive out there and let my athleticism play. There’s a lot of space out there, so I’m just trying to be rangy and fast and make plays in the gaps.”

Added Shelton: “The more he's out there, the more comfortable he's going to get, the more aggressive he is going to get. And we need Tuck's energy.”

Hartlieb earning bullpen role
Reliever Geoff Hartlieb’s rookie year didn’t go according to plan. He finished last season with a 9.00 ERA, a 2.00 WHIP and a right foot injury that required surgery last October.

But the 26-year-old right-hander is off to a much better start this season, recording a 2.53 ERA and stranding eight of the 10 runners he’s inherited in his first nine appearances. In Pittsburgh’s injury-depleted bullpen, Hartlieb is quickly climbing the depth chart to solidify himself in a higher-leverage role.

That showed on Friday night, when Shelton summoned Hartlieb into the game with two runners on and two outs in the sixth inning of a three-run game. Hartlieb walked the first batter he faced but went on to record the four outs Pittsburgh needed, bridging the gap to setup man Richard Rodríguez.

What has led to Hartlieb’s early success? He’s trusting his sinker more, having ditched his four-seam fastball so far this year. He’s throwing his slider more, making it harder for hitters to sit on his sinker. And he feels better physically, with the belief that there’s even more velocity coming the farther removed he gets away from foot surgery.

Before the season began, Hartlieb met with pitching coach Oscar Marin and Pirates management. They encouraged him to live and die with his sinker and slider, then they helped him lower his arm slot so that both pitches are released from the same position. Hartlieb did his own research, too, studying sinkerballers like Blake Treinen and Adam Ottavino to understand how they attack hitters.

“There’s definitely confidence growing there. A lot of it comes from trust, trusting the sinker, trusting the stuff,” Hartlieb said. “Just attacking. They’ve been preaching that to me for the last couple years now. … It’s getting to the point where now I feel like I can locate my stuff pretty well. Yeah, confidence is definitely growing. It’s something I just want to keep building on.”

Long-awaited win
Right-hander Chad Kuhl limited Milwaukee to one run, a Ben Gamel homer, over five innings Friday night at PNC Park. Kuhl didn’t have his best command, walking three while only striking out one, but he held the Brewers to two hits and forced them to put the ball on the ground.

Kuhl lowered his ERA to 2.84 in five outings this season, and in the end, earned his first Major League win since June 15, 2018, three months before he underwent Tommy John surgery and 26 months before he stepped on the mound Friday night.

"It's always cool to win a big league game. Big league wins are hard to come by,” Kuhl said. “It's really cool just to give my team a chance to win. That's all I've ever wanted to do, was be out there and give our team a chance to win. The long layoff, and then everything, it's just really cool."

Kuhl leaned on the weapons that got him to the Majors, a two-seam fastball and his slider, to help him improve to 4-0 in seven career starts against the Brewers. Another encouraging aspect of the performance? After having his workload monitored over his first four outings, Kuhl said he took the mound Friday night without worrying about his pitch count or how many innings he could work.

“It was just nice to go out there and pitch as long as I could until Shelton took the ball from me,” Kuhl said.