Friday: Redbirds In Town, Nova v Michael Wacha, Lineup, Notes

Tonight: After a day of rest, the Bucs face St Louis for three games at PNC Park with the set beginning at 7:05. The contest will be carried by AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan. Tonight will feature Zambelli Fireworks (and hopefully some Pirates pyrotechnics, too; God knows they're due). The Cards are pretty much out of the Central race at five games back and but a player for the second wildcard, 1-1/2 games off that pace. As for the Pirates, don't ask.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Starling Marte LF, Cutch CF, Josh Bell 1B, David Freese 3B, Gregory Polanco RF, Elias Diaz C, Jordy Mercer SS, Ivan Nova P. Hey - a Three Amigos sighting!

Ivan looks to finish up strong after a dismal second half (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: Ivan Nova (11-14, 4.20) gets his bonus start tonight against Michael Wacha (12-8, 4.02)  as his calf has recovered. He showed some bounceback with a quite solid outing in his last start, a 2-1 loss to  in Cincinnati Saturday afternoon. He's set career highs in innings pitched w/180.0 and starts (29) this season. Despite his post-ASG beatdown, Ivan has tossed well at home, going 8-2/2.87 in 11 home starts, winning each of his last five decisions and seven of his last eight. His slash against the Cards is 1-2/4.82 ERA (18.2ip/10er) in three career starts this year, but two of the outings have been pretty good efforts; in fact, his victory at Williamsport in the Little League Classic over the Cards was the last game he's won. Unfortunately, the clunker was his latest on September 10th, a 7-0 loss to today's mound foe Michael Wacha, at Busch Stadium. It was one of two decent outings Wacha has had in his last eight starts, so whether that says more about the Cards' righty or the Pirates hitters is tough to determine. He is 2-1/2.89 v Pittsburgh this year, with a pair of strong outings and one appearance he'd like a mulligan on.

Notes:

• The Redbirds were left in the dust after being swept by the Cubs, but they came back to broom the Reds to stay alive in the wildcard. They're 13-6 in September; the Bucs are 6-13. The Redbirds have already claimed the 2017 series as they're up 10-to-6 in wins.
• Good thing he's young: J-Bell has appeared in 151 of the Pirates first 153 games. In the NL, only Philadelphia’s Freddy Galvis (153) and Cincinnati’s Joey Votto (153) have played in more games this season.
• Dovydas Neverauskas is finding his groove. He's made four straight scoreless appearances and has been scored upon once in his last seven games (7-1/3 IP.
• The Bucco defense has gone seven straight games and a season-high 63 innings without making an error. The Pirates lead all MLB teams in fielding percentage this month at .994; however, their season-wide .984 success rate is just 20th in baseball.