Morton v Jackson

Charlie Morton (1-1, 2.50) goes against Edwin Jackson (4-10, 5.75) today. Morton should be fresh, coming off a rain-shortened two inning stint. And who knows? Maybe the Pirate infield will catch a couple of balls behind him today.

The Bucs haven't beat up Jackson as much as the rest of the league has, defeating him 3-0 and 4-2 earlier in the year and losing their latest shot at him 4-1 on June 9th. In that outing, he worked seven innings of four hit ball and K'ed eight, giving up just a run. So it may not be the mismatch it looks like on paper.

The game starts at 4:05 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

Pirate lineup: Starling Marte LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Garrett Jones 1B, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Mike McKenry C, Jose Tabata RF, Jordy Mercer SS and Charlie Morton P.

Russell Martin gets a deserved day off, and they must trust Jordy's glove now, plugging him in behind Ground Chuck.

Cub lineup: Julio Borbon CF, Starlin Castro SS, Anthony Rizzo 1B, Alfonso Soriano LF, Luis Valbuena 3B, Nate Schierholtz RF, Darwin Barney 2B, Welington Castillo C and Edwin Jackson P.

 

The Cubs go to their RHP lineup today.

• Francisco Liriano's complete game yesterday was the  Pirates' first since July 31, 2012, and that was against the Cubs at Wrigley, too. AJ Burnett did the honors then, tossing a one hitter in a 5-0 win.
• Who'd thunk it? The Pirates are going after their eighth straight road win.
• Not to get ahead of ourselves, but a good measuring stick series is just around the bend. Jeff Locke, Gerrit Cole and Francisco Liriano will face the AL West leaders, the Oakland A's, starting  Monday at PNC Park, meeting up with old Bucs Jesse Chavez and Brandon Moss.
• The All-Star teams will be announced today at 6:30 on Fox TV.