Saturday: Pirates at GABP, Nova v Sal Romano, Lineup, Notes

Today: Game Two at Cincinnati starts at  4:10. It will be on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Jordan Luplow LF, Cutch CF, Josh Bell 1B, David Freese 3B, Gregory Polanco RF, Elias Diaz C, Jordy Mercer SS & Ivan Nova P. Freeser is starting his 91st game at third; we know he's just about the only guy hitting, and good thing too as it's apparent that the Pirates don't have anyone internally (other than Jung Ho Kang) to even look at as a replacement. When J-Hay went down, it left the team with no one even minimally capable of playing the hot corner. That was a hole coming into the season and still one heading into next year.

Ivan's looking for second-half answers (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: Ivan Nova (11-13, 4.25) takes on Sal Romano (4-6, 4.54) in the middle game. Nova's had a spectacular fall from grace - after going 9-6/3.21 in 18 starts prior to the All-Star break, he's gone 2-7/6.62 in nine starts since. His last outing was a loss to St. Louis Sunday. Ivan is winless (0-7) in his last seven road starts and isn't a real good matchup with the Reds. His career line against them is 3-4/ 4.68 in eight career starts and he's slashing worse this campaign. Nova is 0-3/7.25 ERA in three games, losing a 9-3, 4-2 and a 9-5 decisions to Cincy. Romano had a tough start to his rookie campaign, including a 6-0 loss to the Pirates in their only meeting, but has put it together in the last month. He's gone 2-1/2.64 in his last five starts (he's given up three runs just once in that span) and the Reds have won four of those games, so Sal's on a roll coming into today's match.

Notes:

• BTW, Nova lost a chance to qualify for some bonus money based on starts and innings when he was swapped out of his last scheduled outing. We've seen the club go through all sorts of hoops over the years to save a buck, but think this case is justified by Ivan's performance falling short, not FO short-changing. Even with the bad second half, Nova has 173-2/3 IP, a single-season career high for the righty, and both he and Jamo have been on pretty long leashes considering their second-half work.
• J-Bell has gone 3-for-21 in his last six games while Eli has five hits in his last 30 at bats over eight games.

Elias has been a mixed bag so far (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

• The bat may be weak (.233) bat the arm is strong: Elias Diaz has gunned five of the 14 runners attempting to steal against him.
• Stumblin' toward the line: the Pirates have lost eight of their last nine games.