Worley v Bumgarner, Lineup (Pedro Out), LaTroy, Travis, Stop Thief! & Top Guns...

Vance Worley (3-1, 3.10) gets the call against yet another lefty, Madison Bumgarner (12-7, 3.19).

Worley has come back to earth this month, posting a record of 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA after going 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA in June. He has one more slated start after this before Gerrit Cole returns. Vanimal is 2-1 with a 4.09 ERA in three career starts against the G-Men, bute hasn't seen them since 2012.

Bumgarner and the Giants have had their problems at home. He's gone 4-5 with a 5.22 ERA in 10 home starts with at least four earned runs surrendered in seven of them. The team has dropped 19 of their last 25 at AT&T Park; they're 28-28 overall by the Bay. Bumgarner is 1-2 in three career starts against the Pirates but has a 1.71 ERA and .211 Bucco BA in those matchups with 22 strikeouts in 21 innings.

He will, btw, be the eighth lefty in the past 10 games to start against Pittsburgh. After tonight, the Pirates return to looking at righties with Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum next up for San Francisco.

The Giants are coming off a broom job by the Dodgers and have dropped four in a row. Of course, facing Cole Hamels, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Grienke and Hyun-Jin Ryu in a row will do that to a team; they hit .180 against that foursome. Still, San Francisco squandered what was once a runaway in the NL West, going 10-16 in June and 11-12 so far in July. They're now 1-1/2 games behind LA.

The Giants hold the last wild card spot; they're 1-1/2 games ahead of the Bucs, so this series has implications for October, too.

The lineup: Josh Harrison LF, Jordy Mercer SS, Cutch CF, Gaby Sanchez 1B, Neil Walker 2B, Russ martin C, Gregory Polanco RF, Brent Morel 3B and Worley P. El Coffee had some nice swings against a a couple of lefties yesterday, including a homer. Alvarez gets a seat again.

The game starts at 10:15 and will be aired on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan for the night owl club.

• Tom Harding, the MLB.com beat man for the Rockies, posted that the Pirates have shown some interest in 41 year old LaTroy Hawkins.
• Travis Snider leads all MLB players with 12 pinch hits this season and the Pirates lead all big league teams with 42 pinch hits while ranking second with five home runs and tied for first with 27 RBI. The Bucs had seven pinch-hit homers a year ago.
• Pittsburgh pitchers have caught 11 runners attempting to steal this season, tied with San Francisco for the most among all major league teams. The Pirates' 33 caught stealings is tops among NL teams; the Tigers lead the majors with 34.
• Gerrit Cole will make a rehab start tonight for Indy. His goal is 80-85 pitches, with one rehab start to follow to get him up to 100 pitches. That schedule would have him return for Thursday, August 7th against the Marlins, with the Padres due the next day.
• The Bucs had seven of MLB.com's Top 100 Prospects. The RHP Tyler Glasnow was #20, RHP Jameson Taillon #32, OF Josh Bell #33, OF Austin Meadows #50, RHP Nick Kingham #66th, SS Alen Hanson #80 and C Reese McGuire #81. The Top 20 in the Pirate system per MLB.com are linked here.
• Ex-Bucs: The Rays DFA'ed LHP Eric Bedard.