Getaway Day For the Rox-Bucs, Kuhl v Freeland, Bench-Clearing Lineup & Notes

Today: It's a 12:35 start with the game on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan ; it's also MLB.TV's free game for those who like to stream their action. And yay, there's finally no need for the parkas as it's supposed to be in the mid-to-upper 40s at first pitch and in the 50's for the last one.

Lineup: Adam Frazier RF, Jordy Mercer SS, Starling Marte CF, J-Bell 1B, David Freese 3B, S-Rod LF, Elias Diaz C, Max Moroff 2B & Chad Kuhl P. Big lineup shake-and-bake; it's the getaway day gang against a lefty. What the heck...the A-Team couldn't dent the Rox, so maybe emptying the bench will turn the trick. Kinda notable that J-Hay has missed three games and Max is the third 2B to replace him.

Mad Max gets the call today at second (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

Pitchers: RHP Chad Kuhl (1-1, 5.74) closes the set out against LHP Kyle Freeland (0-2, 4.50). Cool Chad is off to a disappointing start - too many balls, too many bad counts, too many pitches up in the zone. Hopefully today he can take a deep breath and return to the promising path he was on last year. He could turn it around pretty quickly, as he's been far from the luckiest hurler alive - his FIP is 3.18 and he has the highest soft contact rate of his young career (22%), but been bitten by a bigly BABIP of .426 and strand rate of just 65%. Kuhl started against Colorado twice last year and didn't fare well, with a line of 0-2/5.73. Freeland, 23, is in his second year and also throws too many pitches while giving up four homers in three starts, but he has made it into the sixth twice in three starts. He saw the Bucs twice last year with a meh result of 1-1/4.63.

Notes: 

• Felipe Vazquez and Michael Feliz have each gone seven straight outings without allowing a run. 
• Pittsburgh has nine hits against the Rox in the opening two games, five banged out by Jordy Mercer and Starling Marte. That they're the leaders should be no surprise - Starling hits .394 lifetime against Colorado and Jordy checks in at .355.
• Pittsburgh starters have worked at least five innings in each game so far this season; every other club has had at least one start fall short of that mark. Six innings looks like the magic distance; the Bucs are 6-2 when a starter lasts six+ frames and 5-4 when they go five frames.
• Hidden advantage: The Pirates are 7-0 in day games this season