Friday: Fish v Bucs, Glasnow v Vance Worley, Lineup, Notes

Tonight: The game begins at 7:05 at PNC Park and is a Zambelli Fireworks Night. The contest will be aired by Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Adam Frazier LF, Josh Harrison 2B, Gregory Polanco, David Freese 3B, Josh Bell 1B, Cutch CF, Jordy Mercer SS, Jacob Stallings & Tyler Glasnow. We assume Jake is starting over Eli tonight to clear the better-hitting Diaz for Dan Strailey tomorrow afternoon.

Tyler continues to be a project (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: Tyler Glasnow (2-5, 6.97) takes on Vance Worley (0-2, 6.59). The 23-year-old Ty will be making his 12th start of the season today. He's struggled, but the Pirates are 5-6 in his starts although he hasn't personally earned a W since May 18th. Glasnow has struck out 49 batters in 50-1/3 IP but been bitten by 29 walks and 10 HR. He's only gone past the fifth once, surrendered less than three runs in an outing once and lefties are batting .324 against him, so the Pirates may reevaluate his role once Jamo returns. He's never faced the Fish. This will be Vanimal's fourth start of the campaign. He hasn't been beaten up quite as badly as his line indicates, tossing to a 4.79 FIP and 1.317 WHIP though Arizona did run him off the mound early in his last visit to the hill, skewering his small-sample stats. Vance is 1-0 against Pittsburgh in three appearances with the last one being in 2012. We'd expect some swatting tonight - Tyler has surrendered nine runs in his last 10 innings; Vance has been tagged for 10 tallies in his last 13-1/3 frames.

Notes:

• Clint Hurdle said pre-game that Felipe Rivero and Juan Nicasio will share the back end duties of closing/set-up and Tony Watson will be "unplugged." He added that Jamo will be back next week, but there's been no decision made on whose spot he'll take when he returns.
• Fangraphs' Travis Sawchik has taken notice in his post "Felipe Rivero May Be Nearing the Elite." If you're kinda meh about the All-Star voting, a good case could be made for Felipe and J-Hay, too, who has a line of .306/.368/.468/.837 OPS if you'd care to spend a couple of pixels on them.

Felipe approaching elite status? (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

• Cole Train is as confused as everyone else re: his recent outings, telling the media that “I haven’t really gone through something like this before,” and can't point to any one thing that's a glaring red flag. He said that he'll just have to trust "the process" to get back on track.
• Felipe Rivero has put up goose eggs in his last 11 appearances while Juan Nicasio has given up one run in his last 20 outings.
• Last night was the fourth straight loss at PNC Park to the Marlins; the Pirates had won 11-of-12 in Pittsburgh prior to that.
• The White Sox have claimed IF Alen Hanson off waivers from the Pirates. He'll join OF Willy Garcia as Bucco booty taken by the ChiSox this year.