Wandy v Cueto; Presley In, Harrison Out

Johnny Cueto (2-0, 2.76) and Wandy Rodriguez (6-2, 3.58) get it on tonight at PNC Park in the opening game of a three-game set. Rodriguez has won his last four starts, with a 3.00 ERA during that span. Wandy's tough at home, posting a 4-1/1.93 line in his five 2013 starts at PNC Park. Lifetime, the lefty is 8-11 with a 4.33 ERA against the Reds.

Cueto has made a living fattening up against the Bucs, with a career line of 12-4/2.52 ERA. Pittsburgh did beat him this year in his only outing against them so far by a 3-1 score in mid-April, but Cueto hurt his tricep during that outing and missed five weeks. Since he's been back, Cueto has together a couple of solid starts. The contest begins at 7:08 and will be aired on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

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

Pedro's back after having two wisdom teeth yanked yesterday (JT, currently on the DL, had a root canal on Thursday too. Wonder if the Bucs have a team dentists?). The Fort is giving Russell Martin a blow; he's caught a lot of innings lately. It's Clint's turn to start at SS; in his last 11 games, he's hit .151 (5-for-33).

Reds lineup: Shin-Soo Choo CF, Zack Cozart SS, Joey Votto 1B, Brandon Phillips 2B, Jay Bruce RF, Todd Frazier 3B, Derrick Robinson LF, Ryan Hanigan C and Johnny Cueto P.

• The Pirates optioned IF Josh Harrison to Indy and recalled OF Alex Presley, which makes sense as they're an OF short with Jose Tabata on the DL.
• Chase d’Arnaud has been reinstated from the DL and optioned to Indy; which requires a 40-man roster move that's unannounced as of yet. The Pirates also picked up a pair of AAA relievers for the Indy Tribe, RHP Graham Godfrey from Boston and LHP Atahualpa Severino, bought from KC. Both have limited MLB experience. With Vic Black hurt and Vin Mazzaro, Bryan Morris and Mike Zagurski in Pittsburgh, the Indy pen was running low on warm bodies. And it just may be that there's something on the backburner involving pitching and the FO is building some depth. We'll see.
• The 2013 Pirates are the first team to win 1-0 in 11 innings (or longer) twice in three days since the 1958 Pirates. The last team to win four 1-0 games over an 11 game span as the Bucs have just done was the 1918 Washington Senators (who, btw, did it seven games!).
• Pittsburgh (34-20) has won 16 of its last 20; who'd ever thunk it?
• Tonight’s contest against the Reds will be the 1000th game played at PNC Park, which opened on April 9th, 2001, also against Cincinnati. The Pirates have gone 488-511 all-time at PNC, and have a 101-90 home record with Clint Hurdle as skipper.
• This is the first time that three teams in same division (Bucs, Cards, Reds) have gone into June with .600 winning % since baseball went to three divisions in 1994, per ESPN Stats.
• Gerrit Cole is on the bump for Indy tonight.
• Stolmy Pimentel's woes continue at Altoona. He went six, giving up four runs on 10 hits, two walks and four K in a 7-4 loss. At West Virginia, Stetson Allie only had one hit, but it went an estimated 450' for his 14th home run.