King Cole Out To Salvage Game #4 v Ian Kennedy

Well, Gerrit Cole (8-7, 3.33) gets to be the stopper again, going against Ian Kennedy (6-9, 4.85). Cole has been the man in September, and the Bucs will call on him again to right the ship before Cincinnati comes steaming into town tomorrow. Kennedy is pretty much a league punching bag except when Pittsburgh takes the field. In his last outing against the Bucs, he shut them out over seven innings on August 21st as the Friars won 2-1.

The game starts at 12:35 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

Pirate lineup: Jose Tabata LF, Neil Walker 2b, Andrew McCutchen CF, Justin Morneau 1b, Marlon Byrd RF, Pedro Alvarez 3b, Tony Sanchez C, Jordy Mercer SS and Gerrit Cole P.

Russ Martin is getting back-to-back planned days off. He's in the middle of a 4-for-42 slump and Clint Hurdle wanted him fresh, physically and mentally, for the Red series. JT is back in leadoff, as about-to-be papa Starling Marte is with his wife, who is in labor.

Padre lineup: Will Venable RF, Chris Denorfia LF, Jedd Gyorko 2b, Chase Headley 3b, Tommy Medica 1b, Ronny Cedeno SS, Nick Hundley C, Reymond Fuentes CF and Ian Kennedy P.

• If you're wondering, Justin Wilson has been shut down this week; it's his first full season not only in MLB, but working out of the bullpen. He's supposed to back in the mix for the Cincinnati series after being off since September 13th, when he worked an inning against the Cubs.
• Looking ahead to the Red series? The matchups are Francisco Liriano vs Mat Latos, AJ Burnett vs Homer Bailey and Jeff Locke vs Bronson Arroyo.
• Going into this afternoon's game, the Bucs are two games behind St. Louis and 1/2 game ahead of the Reds. They're six ahead of the Nats for the last wildcard spot with 10 games to go. It's looking a lot like the Buc and Reds mashups will be for home field in the Wild Card.
• As Buster Olney of ESPN points out (like we don't know) only the Mets have scored fewer September runs than the Pirates.
• Will Graves of the Associated Press tweeted: "Records since July 1 of NL contenders: LAD 49-22, ATL 42-28, STL 40-30, CIN 40-30, PIT 36-35."
• Indianapolis Indians' VP & General Manager Cal Burleson was named the 2013 International League Executive of the Year for the second time; he also won the award in 2000.