Bucs Wrestle Snakes, Nova v Corbin & Notes

Today: The game starts at 7:05 and will be carried by AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan. It's a Zambelli Fireworks night, yay! But there's a good chance that it may rain on tonight's parade; scattered showers are forecast.

Pitchers: RHP Ivan Nova (4-5, 4.42) takes on LHP Pat Corbin (6-3, 3.48). Ivan was sharp in his return from the DL, then put together a decent line in his next start even though he was hit hard. Ivan is 1-1/4.00 in three career starts against the D-Backs. He went 0-1 in two 2017 outings, giving up six runs in 13 innings. After a hot start, Corbin has given up five or more runs in three of his past four starts. In his outing against the Pirates 10 days ago, he was rattled for five runs on seven hits in 5-1/3 IP. Corbin hasn't had much luck with the Bucs, going 1-2/5.90 in five outings.

Ivan gets the ball tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Lineup: Josh Harrison 2B, Austin Meadows LF, Starling Marte CF, David Freese 3B, Elias Dias C, Jose Osuna 1B, Jordy SS,S-Rod LF & Nova P.Lefty on the hill? No prob, send in the bench. Bell, Cervelli, Polanco and Moran get pine time while Dickerson is still on family leave. Corbin, btw, has a reverse split; lefties hit him across the board better than righties, although it is just an 80-at bat sample size.

Notes:

• Colin Moran enters tonight with 19-game on-base and eight-game hitting streak. He is, of course, on the bench tonight.
• Tim Benz of the Trib wonders if three true outcomes (K-BB-HR) are hurting today's game.
• SABR's holding its annual get-together in Pittsburgh, and the Pirates are hosting the SABR convention folks at the yard with manager Clint Hurdle, GM Neal Huntington, analytics guy Dan Fox, announcer Joe Block and PNC Park project exec Tom Kennedy on hand to have their brains picked. Earlier in the day, one of the house panel discussions included Block, Greg Brown, Steve Blass and Lanny Frattare.
• Vance Worley,who was on the Mets minor-league DL, was released.
• Pitt's Joe Jordano resigned from Pitt after 21 years; he was the Panther's winningest coach and led the club to the wins over nationally ranked NC and Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament. He seemed upbeat for the coming season just a week ago, so there's likely a little more behind the story.