Pirates Close Out Cub Set with Rubber Match, Wiliams v Hendricks & Notes

Today: The game starts at 2:20 and is on AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan with out-of-market coverage by MLB Network. And holy moly, it's supposed to be 65 out in Chicago today!

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Gregory Polanco RF, Starling Marte CF, J-Bell 1B, Corey D LF, Cervy C, Colin Moran 3B, Jordy SS & Trevor Williams P. It's as good a time as any to get Fraze a couple of at bats; J-Hay had some blips in the field last night. Also, a bit surprised Amore didn't get the day off after a night game.

Pitchers: RHP Trevor Williams (2-0/1.59) v RHP Kyle Hendricks (0-0/4.09). Trevor came back to earth in his second outing, going from no hits to 10, but was bitten by some pretty bad BABIP mojo, not giving up much solid contract but plagued by infield knocks and flares. He's not been a mighty man against the Cubs, slashing 1-2/4.82 in five outings (three starts). Hendricks has been a solid mid rotation arm for the Cubs, and so far this year has one good and one bad outing; the Brewers tagged him for a couple of homers last time out, and that's been an issue with him since last year. He's been pretty good in his 10 starts against the Bucs, going 4-2/3.23 during his career.

Trevor on the bump today (photo Joe Guzy/Pirates)

Notes:

• Josh Smoker is unavailable today after throwing 38 pitches yesterday.
• Corey D has hit safely in six straight games, Starling in five and Red Beard in four.
• The Pirates lead the NL with 71 runs, trailing only the Angels (86). Among NL teams, the Pirates rank first in BA (.282), OBP (.352) and slugging % (.460). The Bucs have struck out the fewest times in the league (69) and are hitting .351 w/RISP this season, behind only Atlanta (.352). On the other side of the pillow, the Pirate pitchers are 27th in ERA at 5.03 and 25th in K's per nine at 7.4.
• Javy Baez sure likes the Bucco visit. He's the first Cub to enjoy consecutive multi-homer games since Alfonso Soriano in 2008.
• Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune gives a quick overview of the Cubbies and the Buccos; he's upbeat on the Pirates performance so far. 
• Indy's RHP Nick Kingham remains hot. He's piled up 16 strikeouts while allowing one run on four hits over 11 innings in his two starts.
• Altoona OF Bryan Reynolds will have surgery on Friday to repair his broken hamate with recovery time roughly in the six week range if all goes well.
• RHP Chris Volstad, briefly a Bucco in 2015, has joined his fifth MLB club, the White Sox.