Bucs v D-Backs

Wandy Rodriguez will take the hill tonight against Trevor Cahill. Rodriguez hasn't had an easy go of it against Arizona, with a career 3-6/5.48 ERA mark over 46 innings. The Bucs haven't faced Cahill since 2010, when he tossed a two hit shutout with 10 K over 7-2/3 frames against them. The teams are headed opposite ways in the early going. Pittsburgh was just swept by LA while Arizona broomed the Brewers and has won four in a row and 5-of-6 so far.  The game starts at Chase Field at 9:40 and will be shown on Root Sports and The Fan 93.7.

Pirate Lineup: Starling Marte LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Garrett Jones 1B, Russell Martin C, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Travis Snider RF, Clint Barmes SS and Wandy Rodriguez P.

Pedro's batting sixth against a righty, and it looks like the Snider/Tabata platoon is back on track.

Arizona Lineup: Gerardo Parra RF, Martin Prado 3B, Aaron Hill 2B, Paul Goldschmidt 1B, Alfredo Marte LF, AJ Pollack CF, Wil Nieves C, Cliff Pennington SS and Trevor Cahill P.

• Cutch and Starling Marte have 11 hits; the rest of the Pirate team has 10.
• National doom and gloom has arrived: Jason Stonesifer of Yahoo Sports writes "There is every reason to panic...The (Pirates) team now faces a series against the Diamondbacks, a team tied with the most hits in baseball. After that it's series against the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves. It's hard to imagine the Pittsburgh Pirates getting out of April with anything resembling a winning record."
• NL Central after Sunday: Cincy is 4-2, the Cards 3-3, the Cubs 2-4 and Milwaukee & Pittsburgh are 1-5, three games back. The Bucs, Brewers and Cubs were all swept in their last series. If you're wondering about our old running mates, the Astros, they're 1-5 in the AL West and on a five game tailspin.
• Ben Badler of Baseball America included OF Gregory Polanco in his "Prospects Notebook" column.
• A nice New Brighton moment in Cleveland: Tito Francona, who had a 15 year MLB career, six with the Tribe, will throw out the first pitch to the Indians manager, his son Terry.