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PITTSBURGH -- Those who primarily follow the National League -- say, for instance, Pittsburgh Pirates fans -- might not have heard much about right-hander Joe Musgrove.Musgrove (1-1, 4.18 ERA) began the season with Double-A Corpus Christi and has had arguably a meteoric start to his career with Houston. He will be on the mound Tuesday when the Astros play the second of three games at PNC Park.At 6 feet 5, 265 pounds, Musgrove, 23, can look imposing, and he has pitched accordingly -- thanks to his performance and a couple of opportunities.He was recalled from Triple-A Fresno Aug. 1 because Doug Fister was going on paternity leave. He came on in relief Aug. 2, pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings against Toronto and setting a major league record for strikeouts by a reliever making his major league debut with eight.The starter that day, Lance McCullers, then went on the DL, so the Astros kept Musgrove around and gave him his first start, Aug. 7 against Texas, then another and another. The statistic that jumps out: He has 23 strikeouts and three walks in 23 2/3 innings.In his first start, which turned out to be a 5-3, 11-inning Astros loss to the Rangers, Musgrove retired the first 10 batters he faced before giving up three hits in the fifth. Then he settled back down and retired seven of the last eight batters he faced as he pitched through the seventh.He tired at the end but still gutted through his performance, Astros manager A.J. Hinch told the Houston Chronicle. Thats a big step for a young kid to come up here, get his first start and finish his outing. Its really easy to nitpick at the end when youre tired, not make a pitch, and end up having me go out and get you at 6 2/3, as opposed to seven.So there was a good growth day for him. Hes got a lot of charisma, he knows what hes doing, and hes going to attack the zone. I really like what I see from his first two outings.Musgrove has gone 1-1 since that no-decision.Tuesday, he will oppose right-hander Ivan Nova (9-6, 4.83 ERA), meaning it could be a strikeout contest.Nova is 2-0 with a 4.41 ERA in three starts since Pittsburgh acquired him from the Yankees. In his most recent start, a no-decision Wednesday in a 6-5 Pirates win in San Francisco, Nova gave up four runs on six hits over four innings, with five strikeouts and no walks.Houston and the Pirates are in similar battles to try to climb into a wild-card spot, but they are moving in different directions lately.The Astros 3-1 win Monday in the series opener was their fourth win in a row and kept them 3 1/2 games behind Baltimore, which holds the second American League wild-card spot.Since falling to 11 games under .500 on May 22 at 17-28, Houston is 48-32.Winning is contagious and playing good baseball is contagious, said Mondays winning pitcher, Doug Fister. Weve been playing pretty well the last few days, the best weve played in a while.The game Monday was Pittsburghs fourth loss in a row, leaving the Pirates two games behind Miami and four behind St. Louis, which holds the second National League wild-card spot.Manager Clint Hurdle often cites an even keel as critical, and hes emphasizing it even more now.Were very consistent in what we do, and one thing I remind them of is to think with reason, not to think with emotion; make decisions with reason, dont make decisions with emotion, Hurdle said. Many of them have been there in that situation before. Ive been in that situation before. Its not for lack of effort or attitude. Youre getting attitude, youre getting effort, the game can swing back and forth sometimes.Youve got to play through it. You hold fast. These are the times when the coaching staff and myself need to show up. Somebodys got to hold the wheel, keep them positive, keep them playing forward and keep them optimistic. 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United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft.Being a pioneer has its pluses and minuses.Thats the lesson the Los Angeles Dodgers have learned this season, regarding their 3-D batting helmet logos.The raised logos -- the first such helmet graphics in Major League Baseball history -- were introduced in April and have drawn interest from fans and other teams but have also been problematic, because the rigid, plastic LA marks have frequently chipped, cracked or come askew.We were just breaking em every day -- not just during games, but during travel, said Dodgers equipment manager Mitch Poole, who would replace the broken logos with new ones. I could barely keep up with it. We had about 160 of the logos and now Im down to six.So now Poole is switching gears. He has ordered a fresh batch of 3-D logos, but the new set is made of Santoprene, a rubber-like polymer thats flexible and therefore shouldnt crack. Poole expects to receive a batch of the new logos in time for Friday nights game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Hell begin swapping in the new logos as the old ones break.With these, you could take a hammer to them and they wouldnt break, said David Sulecki, owner of Pro Helmet Decals, the Florida-based vendor that has supplied both sets of logos. It probably would have been better to go with this material from the starrt, but there just wasnt time to test things out beforehand.ddddddddddddThe new material has an additional advantage: Because the plastic logos are rigid, they were manufactured with a built-in curvature and had to be positioned in just the right sweet spot in order to adhere properly to the curved helmet shells. That wont be an issue with the new flexible logos, which should adhere more like a traditional logo decal.If the new logos perform better than the old ones, other MLB teams might adopt them next season. Poole said the New York Mets and Washington Nationals equipment staffs had spoken with him about the 3-D logos, and Sulecki said he has fielded inquiries from the New York Yankees and Houston Astros. The Yankees switched to matte-finish batting helmets for road games earlier this season, suggesting that their longstanding reluctance to tinker with their uniform program might be diminishing.Paul Lukas writes about uniforms for ESPN.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so youll always know when a new column has been posted, or just ask him a question? Contact him here. ' ' '