Pittsburgh & St Louis Finale, Kingham v Wacha, Sunday Lineup & Notes

Today: It's a Sunday getaway day game beginning at 2:15. The match will be on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Austin Meadows LF, Starling Marte CF, Josh Bell 1B, Fran Cervelli C, David Freese 3B, Gregory Polanco RF, Sean Rodriguez SS and Nick Kingham P. No, we have no idea why Clint would empty his bench against Michael Wacha. J-Hay may still be feeling the effects of the bug; the others are manager's decisions. We're guessing he's using the ol' two-days-off logic for sitting Jordy, w/two hits yesterday, Corey D and Red Beard, w/a homer. Wacha has a reverse split against lefties, so maybe that played into the lineup verdict.

Nick toes the rubber (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Pitchers: RHP Nick Kingham (2-1, 3.75) ends the dance card with RHP Michael Wacha (6-1, 2.71). After his en fuego start, The King has lasted 17 IP with a 5.29 ERA in his next three outings, albeit with 16 whiffs. But this is a good place to get his mojo back; the Cards are the team that he one-hit in his debut. And he'll need to be good because Wacha sure has been. Since April 20th, he's put up a 1.86 ERA over eight starts. The righty hasn't given up over two runs in any outing during that span w/his oppo slugging % under .300, even though his hard-hit rate is 41%, so maybe a little regression is due. He hasn't been much of a Bucco killer during his career - he's 5-3/3.89 in 14 starts v the Pirates but was tough on Pittsburgh last season, going 2-1/3.04 in four outings. This is his first start against the local nine this campaign.

Notes:

• Ivan Nova threw a bullpen session today; his funky finger felt good afterwards though the trainers will wait to see how it is tomorrow before deciding on his next step.
• Bad times: the Bucs have lost 11 of their last 15 games.
• Pittsburgh outfielders as a unit lead the NL in OPS (.849), total bases (348), batting average (.288) and RBI (102).
• 12 members of the current 25-man roster (Josh Bell, Elias Diaz, Adam Frazier, Tyler Glasnow, Nick Kingham, Chad Kuhl, Starling Marte, Austin Meadows, Jordy Mercer, Gregory Polanco, Edgar Santana and Jameson Taillon) were signed and developed by the Pirates. Joe Musgrove, Michael Feliz, Kyle Crick and Colin Moran are also on the roster, returns for the home-grown Gerrit Cole & Andrew McCutchen. Nine more organizational Bucs are on the 40-man.
• Jung-Ho Kang hit a granny last night for Bradenton. He went 2-for-4 with a walk and a K while playing short and was the middle man in a pair of DPs.
• The Pirates are off tomorrow but will be busy with the draft. On Tuesday, the club welcomes the LA Dodgers to PNC Park during a quick three game homestand.
• George Kontos signed a minor-league deal with the Indians.