Saturday, August 4, 2012

Bucs Play With Lineup, Notes & News

RHP James McDonald (10-5, 3.38 ERA) climbs the hill to take on Reds' RHP Mike Leake (4-7, 4.44 ERA). J-Mick has lost his last two decisions after winning a career-high five straight. Leake throws everything with sink, and after last night, that may not be very good news for the Pirates. The game starts at 7:10 and will be shown on Root Sports.

Lots of sidebars tonight. First and foremost, can the Bucs bats bounce back? Just as key, can McDonald return to his ace form? And will some hapless Red pay the price for Cutch catching a heater yesterday? We think yes, but hope that it's an appropriate situation - Chapman waited until there were two gone in the ninth with the bases empty to send McCutch his love. But hey, it's sorta nice to see the juice of the old Buc-Red rivalry flow again. We fiercely remember the Big Red Machine days and Pedro Borbon.

The Lineup: Alex Presley LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Garrett Jones 1B, Mike McKenry C, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Travis Snider RF, Josh Harrison SS, Jame McDonald P.

Hmmm...dropping Snider to give Pedro a little protection, and sitting Barmes and Barajas for The Fort and Josh, so the bottom of the order has some teeth tonight. Interesting lineup...

  • Cutch extended his hitting streak to eight games last night. Garrett Jones' string ended at nine games.
  • David Brown interviews Cutch for Yahoo's Big League Stew, with some out-of-the-box questions. 
  • Brandon Phillips is back in the Reds' lineup tonight, as is Jay Bruce.
  • Indy's Jeff Locke went 7-1/3 scoreless last night, giving up three hits, two walks and K'ing 10 in a 2-0 victory.
  • Nick Kingham at West Virginia continued his recent roll, going six zippo frames while allowing four hits with five fans in another 2-0 win. 
  • Ben Badler of Baseball America discusses Gregory Polanco and Jose Osuna in the Hot Sheet Chat.
  • So far, so good for Mark Appel. BA rates him the #1 guy in the 2013 draft (behind a subscription wall).
  • This day in history: Doug Drabek, who captured the 1990 Cy Young Award, was one out away from a no-hitter in Philadelphia when he gave up a single through the second base hole to Sil Campusano, who was hitting .188 at the time.

No comments: