Thursday: Catch Your Breath Day - Cards Series on Tap & Today's Notes

The Cards and Bucs have identical 56-53 records and are both four games out of a wild card spot and seven games behind the Cubs. The Pirates don't need splits; they need to get back to winning series. This one has a couple of elements that should pique interest - Chris Archer makes his Bucco bow (he said he's ready to play "winning, meaningful baseball" and hopefully this will be the start), Keone Kela will join the staff, and Corey Dickerson will at least be eligible to rejoin the club Saturday, hammy willing.

Friday showtime for Arch (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

After this set, the Pirates travel to Colorado, San Francisco and Minnesota in a big trip. When they return, they'll have the chance to make up ground - they play Chicago (8), Milwaukee (9) & St Louis (6) 23 times and meet the Bravos six times with Cincy, KC and Miami sprinkled in. So it's set up for them, as long as they can get back to the early and current mojo of taking series.

Notes:

• Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez was named NL Reliever of the Month for July. Setup men Kyle Crick and Edgar Santana also received votes. The Nightmare was the first Pirates RoM since Jason Grilli took the honors in April & May 2013. Now about those long guys...
• Chris Archer switched from #22 at Tampa Bay to #24 here because “I have lot of respect for Andrew McCutchen. His number is not retired yet, but I think it will be.” He added that his warmup song will be "Black and Yellow" by Allderdice's Wiz Khalifa.
• Gregory Polanco has hit 19 home runs as a right fielder. In team history, only four other Pirates have hit 20 or more home runs in one season while playing right field: Dave Parker did it four times, Roberto Clemente did it three times, while Bobby Bonilla and Reggie Sanders accomplished it one time each. Sanders was the last RF to pop 20+, hitting 22 long flies in 2003.
• The Pirates have four players in the midseason Top 100 Prospects list - RHP Mitch Keller, 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes, OF Travis Swaggerty and RHP Shane Baz. Mason Wittner of MLB.com has the story.