Jeff v Zach Davies; Lineup & Notes; Last Night's Quickie Recap

Today's Game - Jeff Locke (7-8, 4.46) faces rookie Zach Davies. Jeff is coming off a pretty sharp performance in Miami, but has mostly struggled mightily this year. Locke is 1-1/3.38 at Miller Park this year, so he's held up pretty well in the House of Horrors , while also taming the Brew Crew once at PNC.

Davies joined the team after the deadline trade that sent Gerardo Parra to Baltimore. He's gone 6-8 with a 3.30 ERA in 23 starts and one relief appearance in Triple-A ball, and is a pitch-to-contact guy. The 22 year old's bread-and-butter is command and changing speeds; it's no surprise that his change is his most advanced pitch. The game starts at 8:10 and will be on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

Well, going with the sticks lineup again. Guess Clint is planning on getting the lead and turning it over to the pen and the leather brigade on the bench.

• Cutch has a nine game hitting steak, and Jordy a five-gamer.
• The Pirates now have a losing record (21-30) against every NL Central rival in 2015. The Cards are 32-18 intra-divison and have a winning record against every NL Central club. That's an 11-1/2 game spread just within the division.
• Pittsburgh hasn't lost three straight games since July 17-19th.
• The Pirates officially added Pedro Florimon to the roster, and moved Deolis Guerra to the 60-day DL to clear a 40-man space.

Last Night's Recap: (Sorry; the original game story was swallowed up by cyberspace) The Bucs lost 7-4 last night, and it wasn't as close as the final score indicates. Gerrit gave up four runs in the first, a combination of bullets, bloops and defensive indifference by his infield. Joakim Soria gave up a couple more in the seventh. The Bucs homered three times late; Pedro in the eighth, followed by A-Ram and JHK blasts in the ninth. All in all, a typical loss at Miller Field.