Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Cumpton v Cueto, Lineups, Cutch & More...

Johnny Cueto (6-5, 1.85 ERA) takes on Brandon Cumpton (2-2, 6.06 ERA). Cumpton has won his last two starts, but he's still been up in the zone and over the plate too much. He needs to hit his spots to hold off the Vanimal when Gerrit Cole returns. Brandon is 1-1 with a 1.35 ERA in four career games (three starts) against the Reds, so he has a record of success against Cincy.

Cueto's been hot, coming off a 12 strikeout outing against LA. He's 15-4 with a 2.15 ERA versus the Buccos, so they haven't been able to solve him very often. That's especially true this year: he has two complete game wins, giving up one run on six hits with 16 K in 18 IP.

The lineup: Gregory Polanco RF, Starling Marte LF, Cutch CF, Ike Davis 1B, Russ Martin C, Pedro 3B, Josh Harrison 2B, Jordy Mercer SS and Cumpton P.

The game starts at 7:05 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.
  • Cutch has moved into second in the All-Star voting. The two starting spots in the OF behind Yasiel Puig have become a three-man race among Cutch, Giancarlo Stanton & Carlos Gomez. Oh, Andrew was also named the NL Player of the Week. He's on an 11-game hitting streak. And Jon Heyman of Baseball Insider picks Cutch as the hottest of the hot right now.
  • Gregory Polanco is on a six-game hitting streak to open his career.
  • The Bucs are 2-5 against the Reds this year. That stumble-out-of-the-April-box versus the division makes the climb back into contention that much more difficult. 
  • There will be a moment of silence before tonight's game to recall Tony Gwynn. The Hall-of-Famer hit his last MLB home run on 8/11/01 off Bucco lefty Joe Beimel at PNC Park in a 6-2 San Diego victory. In his career, Gwynn hit .339 in 185 games against the Pirates.
  • OF Josh Bell, 21, of the Bradenton Marauders has been named the Player of the Week of the Florida State League. The switch hitter went 6-for-13 with three homers and five RBI in an abbreviated All-Star game week of play. He went 0-for-4 with a walk during the FSL ASG.
  • The Bucs announced the signings of sandwich pick Connor Joe (OF/C/1B) and third round selection Jordan Luplow (OF), along with Kevin Krause (C), Erik Forgione (INF) & David Andriese (OF) from the 2014 draft. They've now signed 30 players from this year’s draft, including each of the first 12 and 23 of the first 24 selections. No bonuses were announced.
  • Ex-Bucs: Jose Veras signed a minor league deal with the Astros.

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