Liriano v Wood In Wrigley Battle of Lefties

Francisco Liriano (3-2, 2.17) takes on Travis Wood (5-3, 2.75) at Wrigley Field in a battle of the lefties. The Cisco Kid is coming off his finest game as a Bucco, K'ing 11 Tigers in a 2-0 loss. He outgunned Jeff Samardzija 1-0 on May 22nd at PNC Park, tossing a two-hitter, in his only 2013 outing against the Cubs and is facing Chicago for just the third time in his career.

Wood is 4-4 with a 3.72 ERA in eight career outings against the Pirates, and owns a 3-2 win over the Bucs and James McDonald from early April.

The game starts at 2:20 and will be broadcast on WGN,  Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan. 

No lineups today; GW is out in the field (always when it rains!) today. They'll be posted a couple hours before the game at The Baseball Press MLB Daily Lineups page.

• If you missed it, the Bucs drafted OF Austin Meadows, C Reese McGuire and LHP Blake Taylor yesterday. All are high school guys, so don't look for them until 2017 or beyond. (Brief bios are on the GW draft posts below). Baseball America has the first round profiles, and projects both Meadows and Reese as joining the back half of the organization's top ten prospect lists. The third through 10th rounds will be held today and the final 30 rounds will close it out on Saturday.
• Austin Meadows was the compensation pick for the Pirates' loss of Stanford pitcher Mark Appel last year. It worked out OK; the Bucs got a nice ballplayer and Appel became overall #1 in this year's draft, going to the Astros and winning his bonus gamble.
• Still no word on Wandy Rodriguez's replacement (he's been diagnosed with elbow inflammation); guess it's kinda gotten lost in the draft buzz. It may just bump Charlie Morton's return date up a notch, which appears to be Option A so far. But Gerrit Cole, due to performance and the June time frame, is working his way into the conversation. And it's possible, with the bullpen crowd, that Bryan Morris and Justin Wilson (less likely) get some consideration.
• The Bucs have lost five of six and are in a three game tailspin, their longest losing streak since their early April stumble against the Dodgers. They open a three game daylight set against the Cubs before resuming play against the Giants, Dodgers, Reds and Angels.
• James McDonald got beat up a bit again at Indy. He went 3-2/3 innings, giving up three runs on four hits with a walk and two whiffs.
• RHP Nate Adcock, who the Royals claimed in the Rule 5 draft a couple of seasons ago from Pittsburgh, has been DFA'ed.