Pitchers: Chad Kuhl (1-0, 6.08) hopes to be the Bucco stopper against Max Scherzer (9-6, 3.21). Chad will be making his fourth start, and he has to focus on getting the ball down, a lesson he should take to heart after the Cubs rocked him in his last outing. He's gotten 32 fly/line outs to just 15 rollers, and Kuhl should, based on his minor league work, be getting the reverse. The league is slashing .327/.377/.564 against him, so a lot of those air balls are landing on grass. Max leads the NL in Ks with 164. Tough to forget last season, when Scherzer lost a perfect game when Jose Tabata's elbow pad got in the way of a two strike pitch in the ninth inning. But it seems like the four-time All Star is right up Kuhl's alley, as Chad has already tossed against Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Jon Lester, with the Pirates winning all three matches.
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| Chad looks for a bounce back after a Cubbie beatdown (photo Ben Margot/AP) |
Lineup: JJ 1B, Adam Frazier 2B, Cutch CF, Starling Marte LF, Freeser 3B, Matt Joyce RF, Jordy SS, Erik Kratz C, Kuhl P. Joyce is today's Polanco replacement, and Kratz gets the call for a day-after-night game gig. Josh and JHK have been icy lately, so with a day off tomorrow, it's a good time to give them a blow.
- Took a while, but ESPN finally noticed that "The Pirates Have A Pitching Problem".
- Heading the list on Baseball America's Prospect Report is Steven Brault.
- MLB executive Joe Torre sent a memo Friday to clubs informing them that confronting umpires is "highly inappropriate conduct [that is] detrimental to the game and must stop immediately." Memo to Joe: hire umps who have a clue where the strike zone is if you really want to clean up the act.
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