Tuesday: Reds at Pirates, Jamo v Homer Bailey, Lineup, Notes

Tonight: Pirates vs. Cincinnati at PNC Park with first pitch at 7:05. The game will be on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan. It's Tuesday so it's another Pup Night.

Lineup: Starling Marte LF, Adam Frazier 2B, Cutch CF, Josh Bell 1B, David Freese 3B, John Jaso RF, Fran Cervelli C, Jordy Mercer SS & Jameson Taillon P. Fraze will take J-Hay's spot and JJ gets Gregory's place in the pasture.

Jamo will try to end end the Reds voodoo (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: Jameson Taillon (6-4, 4.03) opens the Reds set against Homer Bailey (2-5, 8.37). The 25-year-old righthander will be making his 15th start an d is looking for a bounceback after giving a career-high 10 runs (nine earned) in his last start against the Giants. He was due for a regression after stranding runners galore, so let's hope that last outing provided all the correction needed. JT is 1-1/4.91 in four career starts v the Reds and worse this year at 0-1/6.55 ERA in two games this season, losing 7-2 in Cincinnati and receiving a no-decision in a 6-2 Bucco loss at PNC Park. Bailey is seven games into a comeback from elbow surgery and has scattered three strong starts with four whuppings. He's 8-6/3.58 lifetime against the Pirates in 19 games and in nine career starts at PNC Park, Bailey is 5-2 with a 2.58 ERA. Homer has only faced Pittsburgh once since 2014 and was chased after three innings last year.

Notes:

• RHP Joaquin Benoit has reported and will be available tonight.
• The good news: The Pirates have won five straight games at PNC Park and have gone 6-1 in their last seven. The bad news: They're 1-6 v the Reds and were swept by the at PNC Park in April.
• Bucco All-Star and Cincinnati native Josh Harrison is hitting .326 (14-for-43) with five multi-hit efforts in his last 11 games...In his six games played against the Reds this season, JHay has gone 8-for-22 (.364) with a double, three home runs and five RBI.
• Cutch is two dingers away from becoming the fourth Pirate to lose 200 baseballs. The others are Willie Stargell (475), Ralph Kiner (301) and Roberto Clemente (240).

Gregory's wheel is just about patched (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

• Gregory Polanco ran the bases today and he may return to action this series. J-Hay is recovering after jamming his foot in San Diego but will sit tonight; the injury is considered "day-to-day."
• Kinda the end of an era with Tony Watson and Jared Hughes gone. Converted starters, they appeared in 763 games for the Pirates (Watson - 450, Hughes - 313, 7th and 19th in franchise history) since coming up together in 2011. They slashed 46-29-42/2.77 over that span.
• In case you missed it, the Cubs added ex-Bucco southpaw Justin Wilson to their bullpen. He was sent to the NY Yankees in 2014 for Fran Cervelli.