Bucs-Reds, Williams v Castillo, Notes & Siegrist Saga

Today: The middle match will begin at 7:05. The game will be the MLB Network feature and also carried by 93.7 The Fan. It's free t-shirt Friday and Dollar Dog Night to boot, with every Aramark stand offering weenies for a buck. It'll be warmer out at first pitch - in the high forties - but there's expected to be drizzle during the game. If you use the Gatway Clipper to get to and from the game, you're gonna have to come up with a Plan B - the river is running high and fast, so the Clipper is staying docked tonight.

Lineup: Josh Harrison 2B, Greg Polanco RF, Starling Marte CF, Chris Dicerson LF, Fran Cervelli C, Colin Moran 3B, Jordy Mercer SS & Trevor Williams P.

Colin is back in action tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: RHP Trevor Williams (1-0/0.00) v RHP Luis Castillo (0-1/10.88). Trevor tossed six innings of no-hit ball Sunday, so that's a pretty good building block for the season, although five walks and one whiff aren't very sustainable counting numbers. The Nats used Castillo as a punching bag in his first outing, but his history indicates that was an outlier. The Reds righty is a whiff wizard (10K per nine innings) and was especially effective over the last two months of his rookie 2017 campaign after he added a two-seam sinker to his toolkit, pitching to a 2.66 ERA. His four-seamer hits 97 but is sometimes flat, so a pitch with some movement was what the doc ordered for him. Castillo faced the Pirates once last year, giving up two runs in four innings while fanning five. Trevor faced Cincy four times last year, twice as a starter, and slashed 1-0/3.31 in those appearances.

Notes:

• Free-swingin' J-Hay may seem an odd choice for leadoff, but he's hit .302 BA/.340 OBP from   the top spot in the lineup during his career. 
• Gregory is in the MLB top spot for RBI with nine, tied early on with four other guys. That's kinda amazing considering he's already hit out of three different position in the lineup in the first six games.
• Kevin Siegrist's relationship w/the Pirates is complicated. He was placed on the suspended list after he failed to report to Indy. It ends up his agreement reads that he can be released if he didn't make the roster AND signed an MLB deal with another team. Apparently there were no takers, so contractually he's a Bucco until his opt-out date of June 1st. Seems like an odd decision for Siegrist; you'd think he'd want to pitch somewhere just to show he's healthy again.
• Oakland's Phil Coyne retired after serving 81 years as a Pirates usher and good will ambassador. The Bucs will honor Coyne on April 27th, his 100th birthday, when he and nearly 200 of his family and friends will be Pirates guests with a special pre-game ceremony. 
• Travis Snider, 30, signed a deal to play indie league ball this season. 
• Here's a quick Mirriam-Webster post on the origin of some baseball phraseology like "can of corn."