Reds Come to Town; Brault v Bailey & Notes

Today: The Pirates and the Reds continue at PNC Park with a 7:05 first pitch. The game will be shown on MLB Network and aired by 93.7 The Fan. It's Military Night, honoring the work of the Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania. The weather won't be gentle again; it's supposed to be low forties and breezy.

Lineup: J-Hay 2B, Gregory Polanco RF, Starling Marte CF, J-Bell 1B, Corey Dickerson LF, David Freese 3B, Fran Cervelli C, Jordy SS & Steven Brault P. Jordy's back in the saddle and Freeser gets his second start at the hot corner.

Jordy's back in business - 2017 Topps

Pitchers: LHP Steven Brault (1-0/0.00) v RHP Homer Bailey (0-1/1.50). Brault has worked once, on Opening Day, in a three-inning shutout relief effort. Bailey was the hard-luck, 2-0, loser to Max Scherzer in his first outing. He's also a regular thorn in the Pirates side, having faced them 21 times in his career with a 10-6/3.39 slash, the most wins and lowest ERA he sports against any NL opponent. Steven faced the Reds once, back in 2016, and gave up two runs in five frames.

Notes:

• The Reds owned the Pirates last season, going 13-6 (.684) against them despite finishing in the NL Central cellar at 68-94. Cincy is 1-3 this year and are one of the teams the Bucs have to beat if they want to be contenders rather than pretenders.
• The Pirates let an infield pop-up fall between three players last night, caused by something you rarely hear cited - they lost the ball in the swirling snow. Maybe they should bring back Charley Finley's old orange baseballs when flakes fall... 
• Pittsburgh has claimed RHP Jesus Liranzo, 23, off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and optioned him to Altoona. The reliever will join the 40-man. He has 202 strikeouts in 170 minor league innings along with 103 walks. Liranzo has a good arm, sitting in the mid-nineties. At this point, he's more intriguing than anything else, with a 4.50 ERA in the minors. He'll have an option remaining in 2019.
• Phil Coyne, who has ushered for 81 years at Forbes Field, TRS and PNC, has called it quits three weeks shy of 100-years-old after suffering a fall in his apartment, reports Colin Deppen of The Incline.