Chicago - Pittsburgh In Round Two, Kingham v Lester & Notes (MLB Sez "Ooops")

Today: The game starts at 7:05 and will be aired by AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Josh Harrison 2B, Austin Meadows RF, Starling Marte CF, Josh Bell 1B, David Freese 3B, S-Rod LF, Elias Diaz C, Jordy SS & Nick Kingham P. Corey D is batting .385 against lefties & sitting; David Freese is hitting .194 against lefties and starting; Colin Moran apparently will never get a look at a southpaw. Clint logic...and especially odd with Cervy still out; guess the flu bug bit him hard; knock on wood that Eli's sore ankle holds up.

Nick on the bump (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

Pitchers: RHP Nick Kingham (2-1, 3.44) meets LHP Jon Lester (4-2, 2.37) in the middle game. Nick has been sitting on the shelf for eight days while the Pirates decided Ivan Nova's fate. The King is probably dizzy from his yo-yo existence as the Bucs' pull-out-of-the-hat starter, and it shows as he tries to settle in - he's been brilliant, bad and meh in his three grudging starts. The peripherals we like are his 21 whiffs in 18 IP and 11% swinging strike rate; that tells us that he's shown enough stuff to succeed. This will be his first outing against the Cubbies. Outside of a couple of rough April starts, Lester has been rock solid on the hill for the Bruins. One of those rough starts was against the Buccos, who scored four runs on seven hits in five frames against the veteran lefty. Overall, he's been solid but not spectacular when facing Pittsburgh with a 5-5/3.50 slash in 13 starts.

Notes:

• Ah, MLB. Both the Cubs and Pirates were informed by league that Anthony Rizzo should've been called for interference for his slide into Eli yesterday. The umps and a review OK'ed the play (the vid apparently didn't have an angle - or maybe it had too many - to determine if it was a legal slide or not, so the call on the field stood). Clint was tossed over the affair; Maddon called it "the perfect play."
• In the past three weeks/17 games, Jordy has gone 18-for-59 (.305) with two triples, three homers and 10 RBI; he's always been a slow starter.
• Tyler Glasnow has given up one run in his last six outings covering 11-1/3 IP.
• Rennie Stennett will rep the Bucs at Monday's draft. Yep, it's that close.