Sunday, June 2, 2013

Gomez Looks To Salvage Game #3 v Reds & Mat Latos

Mat Latos (5-0, 3.01) looks to sweep the Bucs today;  Jeanmar Gomez (2-0, 2.30) looks to trip up the Reds. Gomez is coming off perhaps his finest performance of the year against Detroit, where he tossed seven shutout frames, and Pittsburgh has won each of his six starts.He has 2-1/3 scoreless innings against Cincy in an early season relief outing.

Latos has been tough this year, but the Bucs handled him fairly well in their last meeting, when they got to him for three runs on nine hits in 6-2/3 innings in April. Lifetime, he's been strong against the Bucs, though, going 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA.

The game starts at 1:35 and will be aired by Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

Pirate lineup: Alex Presley RF, Starling Marte LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Garrett Jones, 1B, Russell Martin C, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Jordy Mercer SS and Jeanmar Gomez P.

Presley stays in the lineup and Mercer gets the start at short. Clint Hurdle tinkered with the middle a bit, dropping everyone a spot - Marte to second, Walker to third, Cutch to cleanup and Jones to fifth - to accommodate The King.

Reds lineup: Shin-Soo Choo CF, Zack Cozart SS, Joey Votto 1B, Jay Bruce RF, Todd Frazier 3B, Xavier Paul LF, Devin Mesoraco C, Cesar Izturis 2b and Mat Latos P.

Brandon Phillips is out after bruising his arm yesterday when clocked by Tony Watson. Xavier Paul, once a Bucco, gets the call in left against a RHP.

Both starting catchers from last night are back, an oddity for a day-following-night game.

  • The Pirates haven’t dropped three straight games since their four-game skid April 4th-7th. Yesterday was the second time they've been shut out in back-to-back games, the first being at Dodger Stadium on April 5th-6th. That's also the only time they've been swept (April 5th-7th).
  • James McDonald did much better this time around for the Curve. He went four scoreless innings, giving up two hits with a walk and two K, tossing an efficient 38 pitches in a 2-1 win.
  • Travis Sawchik of the Tribune Review writes about the philosophy and mixed results of the Huntington era drafts.

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