Charlie v Kyle Hendricks; Lineup (Cutch Catches a Blow) & Notes

Today's Game - Charlie Morton (9-7, 4.02) finishes the set against Kyle Hendricks (7-6, 4.08). Charlie has been up and down all season, but fairly dependable at home, where he's 6-2/3.00 in 10 starts, going at least six frames in all but one of his PNC outings. He hasn't faced the Cubbies this season, and didn't do so well against them in 2014, with a 1-1/4.32 slash in four starts, oddly all against Edwin Jackson.

Hendricks struggled after the ASG, but his last game was a strong performance, albeit against the Phillies. He claims to have rediscovered his mechanics after watching film of his minor league days; guess we'll see this afternoon. He hasn't fared very well against the Buccos, going 0-1/5.63 in three starts this season. The get-away game begins at 12:35 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

It's been quite a September series between the two playoff bound clubs, with every game decided by a run; we'll see how the drama plays out today. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead one more time...

Cutch is on reset today (photo Charles LeClaire/USA Today)

Today's Lineup - Gregory Polanco RF, Starling Marte CF, Neil Walker 2B, Jung-Ho Kang SS, Pedro 1B, Fran Cervelli C, Travis Snider LF, Josh Harrison 3B, Morton P.

Cutch takes five (he was the only Pirate to start both ends of Tuesday's DH) and JHK slides back to SS for the day.

• Starling Marte rifled his league-leading 13th outfield assist last night, the most by a Pirates outfielder since Jason Bay had 13 in 2007. The last Bucco OF'er with more was Barry Bonds, who shared the league lead in 1990 with New York’s Kevin McReynolds with 14 toss-outs. The Pirates lead all NL teams with 33 outfield assists.
• Cutch had a streak of 24 straight games of reaching base snapped last night.
• Joe Blanton has gone 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 15 games covering 27 IP as a Pirate.
• The Bucs are 10-0-1 in their last 11 series played on the North Shore since losing a home set to the Reds in late June; let's hope that string continues.
• Following today’s game the Pirates embark on their final road trip of the regular season, a testy 10-gamer to Los Angeles (three games), Colorado (four) and Chicago (three).