Off to La-La Land, Kingham v Wood & Notes - Osuna to AAA, Romero DFA'ed, Shook Up Lineup

Today: Yah, more late night Buc'ing with a 10:10 start. The game will be on AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan.

Pitchers: RHP Nick Kingham (2-3, 3.82) opens against LHP Alex Wood (4-5, 4.00). Good thing the King doesn't suffer from motion sickness; he's been between Indy and Pittsburgh so often they've named the red eye flight after him. Nick has mostly pitched just OK with a couple of strong outings sprinkled in, but he's never gotten more than three consecutive starts (he'll be making his seventh) so it's been tough to build an MLB foundation. To boot, the Bucs were shutout in his last two outings. He's never faced the Dodgers. Wood's slash is skewed by three bad outings, but he's found a groove recently as his last three starts have all been solid. Wood hasn't faced the Bucs this year but has a strong resume against them - in eight career games (seven starts) his line is 2-2/2.86.

The King claims the hill tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Lineup: Austin Meadows CF, Josh Harrison 2B, Gregory Polanco RF, Elias Diaz C, Colin Moran 3B, David Freese 1B, Corey Dickerson LF, Jordy SS & Kingham P. Geez, a lefty and Red Beard is playing (along with three other LH; Starling is down for some swing work), with quite a bit of order-shifting today.

Notes:

• Jose Osuna has been optioned to open a slot for Nick Kingham; the Bucs will go with a short bench, though Joey O could stand regular at bats again. Enny Romero was reinstated from the DL and then DFA'ed.
• Should be an interesting series as far as the lineups go; LA has three lefties slated to go against the Pirates.
• The Pirates believe that Chad Kuhl has a flexor strain and that rest should take care of it; hopefully they're right.
• S-Rod begins his rehab at Indy tonight; he's starting at third base.
• The Bucs are being left in the All-Star voting dust. Corey Dickerson is the only one that's vaguely in the running, and he's 14th among NL outfielders.
• Bristol Pirates OF Jonah Davis was named Appalachian League Player of the Week. He's a 15th-rounder from Cal who banged 10 x-tra base hits (3-HR, 1-3B, 6-2B) in the past five games.