Saturday: Bucs at Birds, Kuhl v Carlos Martinez, Lineup, Notes

Tonight: Hey, Saturday night in St. Louis with game time at 7:15. AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan will carry the contest.

Lineup: Starling Marte LF, Adam Frazier 2B, Cutch CF, Josh Bell 1B, David Freese 3B, Gregory Polanco RF, Elias Diaz C, Jordy Mercer SS & Chad Kuhl P. Woooo - a Three Amigo's sighting!

Chad has the mound tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: Chad Kuhl (7-10, 4.32) takes on Carlos Martinez (11-10, 3.34). Chad will be making his 29th start of the season and his last was is best. He struck out  eight batters and spun seven scoreless innings Monday against the Cubs. Cool Chad has slashed 5-4/3.11 in his last 13 starts and has allowed more than two earned runs just four times in his last 18 starts. The bad news (yep, there's always bad news) is that he's lost his last three road decisions and hasn't won away from home since July 6th. Kuhl is 1-1/3.94 ERA in three starts v the Birds this year. He lost a 2-1 match, had a no-decision (five IP - four runs) in an 8-4 Pirates loss and won by a 6-4 count (five IP - one run) in mid-August. Martinez is strong all around; the only peripheral he could pare is his home run rate of 1.2 per game. He averages better than a K per inning, three walks per game and has a 1.189 WHIP, all pretty solid numbers. Carlos is 1-0/3.21 this year against Pittsburgh, giving up five runs on 11 hits in 14 frames. It should prove to be an interesting matchup; both young guns are coming off dominant shutouts.

Notes:

• Mad Max has a five-game hitting streak going on.
• Only Arizona's starting pitchers have surrendered fewer home runs (94) than the Pirates starters (96) with the LA Dodgers (99) as the only other rotation that has yielded fewer than 100 dingers. The Bucco relievers are in the middle of the MLB pack at 16th with 61 long balls served up. 
• Altoona SS Cole Tucker broke his hand sliding into third last night. He'll be out 4-6 weeks, and that could be long enough to bump him off his scheduled Arizona Fall League gig. IF Kevin Kramer just came off the DL after a broken hand and will take his place on the roster.
• Mark Melancon will undergo right forearm surgery on Tuesday and will miss the rest of this season.