Thursday, April 25, 2013

Bucs Eye Another Series Win v Phils

J-Mac (2-2, 4.12 ) and Cliff Lee (2-1, 2.83) close out the series this afternoon. With McDonald, it's just a question of which pitcher shows up. Lee has been bringing it for a long time, but his last outing against the Cards saw him give up five runs in five innings.

J-Mac hasn't had much luck against the Phillies, going 1-2/5.73 in six outings (four starts). This will be Lee's fourth start versus Pittsburgh; the lefty's got a 1-0/3.05 line against them. The game starts  at 1:05 and will aired by Root Sports and The Fan 93.7.

Pirate lineup: Starling Marte LF, Brandon Inge 2B,Andrew McCutchen CF, Gaby Sanchez 1B, Mike McKenry C, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Jose Tabata RF, Clint Barmes SS and James McDonald P.

Clint just can't get himself enough Brandon Inge; he gives The Kid a blow today. Travis Snider and Garrett Jones are on the pine today, too, while Pedro gets his hacks against a top flight southpaw.

Phil lineup: Jimmy Rollins SS, Kevin Frandsen 3B, Chase Utley 2B, Ryan Howard 1B, Laynce Nix RF, Domonic Brown LF, Ezequiel Carrera CF, Erik Kratz C and Cliff Lee P.

You can tell it's getaway day.

  • Pittsburgh is hitting .235 with RISP. That's not very good, until you consider that the team BA is .230. The Pirates do need some more lumber against lefties. The club hits .246 against RHP, but a mere .187 v southpaws when they have to sit Snider, Jones and Pedro while Walker has struggles when he's turned around.
  • The Pirates continue their road trip with a weekend series at St. Louis and closing with three games at Milwaukee.
  • Francisco Liriano is set to go five innings/80 pitches today at Indy. His knock-on-wood date to pitch for Pittsburgh is May 10th.

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