Saturday: Two To Go - Jamo v Max Scherzer, Lineup, Notes

Tonight: The countdown reaches two with the first pitch at 7:05. The game will be aired on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Starling Marte LF, Cutch CF, Josh Bell 1B, Gregory Polanco RF, Sean Rodriguez 3B, Elias Diaz C, Max Moroff SS & Jamo P. Looks like Jordy is getting the series off; maybe Stew too.

Been a long year for JT (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: Jameson Taillon (8-7, 4.62) finishes his campaign against Max Scherzer (16-6, 2.55). Jamo will be making his 25th start tonight, and had a good outing last time he toed the slab with a 4-1 win over the Cardinals, though we're still not sure what purpose is being served by trotting him out. He faced the Nats once last year and has no record against them. Scherzer is again on the short list of Cy Young candidates (six hits per nine with 12 K) and is going up against a team that has been swinging their bats like they're made of lead. It will be his first outing of the year v the Pirates, with a 4-2/2.89 lifetime slash in nine starts.

Notes:

• Starling Marte ran his hitting streak to 10 games with a 2-for-4 performance last night. He's hitting .472 (17-for-36) during the streak with seven multi-hit games. Cutch has a six-gamer going on.
• The Bucs have gone 29-50 on the road this season, having lost seven in a row and 13 of their last 14.
• Big day in Bucco history: Roberto got hit #3,000 on this date in 1972 and Ralph Kiner hit his franchise-record 54th homer in 1949.
• Max Scherzer, btw, has whiffed 250+ batters for four consecutive seasons (2014-17). He's the fourth hurler in MLB history to do that, joining Hall-of-Famers Randy Johnson (1997-2002), Ferguson Jenkins (1968-71) and Pedro Martinez (1997-2000).