Cole Train v Vogelsong, Lineup & Notes

Today's Game - Gerrit Cole (7-2, 2.11) faces once-upon-a-time Bucco Ryan Vogelsong (4-2, 4.24). Cole is rising to the top of the NL pitching class. He's been charged with two or fewer earned runs in eight of his first 10 starts and is improving his one flaw, innings worked. Gerrit is 2-0 with a 3.14 ERA in two career starts against the G-Men. Vogelsong's so-so ERA can be attributed to a horrible start. He was strong in the month of May, allowing just four runs in five starts for a 1.14 ERA. Ryan has been steady against Pittsburgh, going 2-3/3.38 in five lifetime starts. The game starts at 10:15 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

The lineup is a little bit shaken up with The Kid at cleanup and JHK working out of the seven hole. Stew has become Gerrit's personal caddy; this will be the seventh of 11 Cole starts Chris has caught. With Stewart wagging the fingers and Gerrit nodding, the duo have combined to hold opponents to a 1.56 ERA.

The two clubs have had a spirited competition in recent seasons, having split their 32 games dating to 2010. The last time they met was in the 2014 Wild Card game, which the Giants won handily 8-0 on their way to the World Series title. The Pirates won two of their three games played in San Francisco last season and have gone 2-1-1 in their last four series played at AT&T Park.

• Fran Cervelli led all NL players with a .377 batting average during the month of May.
• El Coffee has back-to-back two-hit games and has hit safely in five straight games.
• Arquimedes Caminero has made five straight scoreless appearances and put up zeroes in 13 of his last 16 appearances. Opponents are hitting .177 off him.
• In his six starts this month, AJ Burnett went 5-0 with a 1.82 ERA. It was just the second time in his career that he posted a month that hot. AJ also went 5-0 with a 2.24 ERA with the Pirates in June of 2012.
• The Pirates broke into Sports Illustrated's Top Ten Power Ranking.
• Indy 2B Alen Hanson was named the International League Player of the Month for May, when he hit .362 with three HR, 8 RBI & 22 runs scored. Been a long time since an Indian won the honor; the last was Zach Duke in 2005. Hanson also was named on MLB.com's Jim Callis' Prospect Team of the Week.  It'll be interesting to see where he'll fit in next season with the already crowded Bucco infield.
• Indianapolis WHTR's Bob Kravitz featured LHP Clayton Richard in the news.