Brewers Take the Bucs Into the All-Star Break, J-Grove v Chacin & Notes

Today: The game will start at 1:35 and be aired by AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. Kids 14-and-under get a Bucco lunch bag.

Pitchers: RHP Joe Musgrove (3-4, 3.77) closes the series against RHP Jhoulys Chacín (8-3, 3.78). Musgrove struck out a career-high nine hitters on Tuesday but only got through five innings. J-Grove looks so far like one of those guys who has to grind out wins by working around runners; he's not a low-hit twirler with a 1.338 WHIP over the past two years. Musgrove will close out the Pirates' first half with his first outing against the Brewers. Chacin has owned the Bucs this season, allowing two earned runs on nine hits in 12-1/3 innings, although he didn't get a decision in either match as Milwaukee split the two games. He's a guy that's hot-and-cold on the hill; Chacin's allowed two or fewer runs 12 times, but four or more in seven starts.

J-Grove looks to sweep the Brew Crew (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Lineup: Corey Dickerson LF, Starling Marte CF, Gregory Polanco RF, Elias Diaz C, Colin Moran 3B, J-Bell 1B, J-Hay 2B, Jordy SS & Musgrove P. The A-Team goes for the sweep.

Notes:

• Michael Feliz and Tyler Glasnow are down today, but the back end guys are ready for duty. 
• The Pirates have won five in a row and seven-of-eight. We wouldn't pop the champagne quite yet. The team is 47-49 and still nine games behind the Cubs in the division and 5-1/2 games behind the Dodgers & Braves for the second wild card with 66 games to go. As for Milwaukee, they've dropped out of first place, losing five in a row and seven-of-nine.
• A victory today would give the Pirates their first five-game sweep since September 12-15th, 1996 at San Francisco and their first in Pittsburgh since August 18-21st, 1995 vs. Florida. Since giving up 17 runs to the Phillies in the first game of this homestand on July 6th, the Pirates pitching staff has posted a 2.22 ERA and seven saves while going 7-2 over the last nine games. And it's not just the smokin' hot bullpen - the Bucco starting pitchers have crafted a 2.45 ERA while striking out 56 batters and walking just 10 over 51+ IP.

Marte Partay in full swing... (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

• He's hotter than the weather: Starling has an 11-game hitting streak on the line, with multi-hit games in six of the contests and three doubles, four homers, nine runs, nine RBI & six swiped sacks.
• Felipe Vazquez has three saves during this series; the only Pirates pitcher to save four games in a single set is Kent Tekulve in 1978, per StatsBySTATS.
• The Futures Game is today and will be aired at 4 PM by the MLB Network. 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes & RHP Mitch Keller are starting for the US, so you may want to flip the TV between innings to catch the two prospects in action on a pretty big stage.
• The Cards fired Mike Matheny after yesterday's loss to the Reds. He hadn't taken the Redbirds to the playoffs since 2015... Bench coach Mike Shildt took over as interim manager while the Redbirds search for a new boss.