SAN FRANCISCO -- Even at his current status as a part-time starter, Jung Ho Kang is on pace to appear in 118 of the Pirates' games -- one more than he played in 2014 as one of the Korean Baseball Organization's marquee stars. Adjusting Kang to Major League Baseball's 162-game schedule -- in contrast to Korea's 128-game slate -- is one of the Bucs' main projects, and it continued Tuesday with his absence from the starting lineup against the Giants.
Kang's primary impression of big league ball can probably be captured in one word: more. More games, more intensity in those games, "just the magnitude of everything," manager Clint Hurdle said.