Big Joe v Brett Anderson, Lineup & Notes

Game: The Oakland A's come to town for a 7:05 start of a three-gamer at PNC Park. AT&T SportsNet and 93.7 The Fan have the coverage of the contest with a Corey Dickerson (remember him?) free-tee as the giveaway. It's also dollar dog night; they promise to have buns this time. There's supposed to be a line of storms/showers coming through about gametime, so we'll see how cooperative Mother Nature is tonight.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Starling Marte CF, Melky Cabrera RF, Josh Bell 1B, Bryan Reynolds LF, Fran Cervelli C, Jung Ho Kang 3B, Cole Tucker SS, Joe Musgrove P. Gregory takes a seat against a lefty, and it's good news that Cervy is back in the saddle.

Big Joe is on the bump 2019 Topps

Pitchers: RHP Joe Musgrove (1-2/1.54) takes on LHP Brett Anderson (3-2/4.35) in the opener. Big Joe has been rock steady this season; it's about time his mateys gave him a couple of runs to work with. He's faced Oakland seven time (three starts) and been stellar with a line of 1-1/1.33 against them. Anderson has lasted just seven innings in his last two starts and lost his last three. As the case with most southpaws, he's been solid in his three career outings (two starts) against the Bucs with a 2-1/3.10 slash; both wins were at PNC Park, the latest in 2017 when he was a Cubby.

Notes:

• The Pirates are the only NL Central team with a losing record at home (6-7), having just lost their last five games at PNC Park. Oakland is on a six-game losing streak of their own and are 4-11 on the road.
• Tampa Bay's RHP Tyler Glasnow was named AL Pitcher of the Month. His March/April line is 5-0/1.75 w/38 K in 36 IP.
• The "Million Dollar Arms" may have started something way ahead of the curve. The MLB is looking into expanding (market-wise, not team-wise) into India per Baseball America.