Montana v Jon Gray, Lineup & Notes

Game: Opening toss is at 7:05, with the game broadcast by AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. The weather should be OK, with rain coming on after the game although a scattered shower or two may visit.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Starling Marte CF, Gregory Polanco RF, Josh Bell 1B, Bryan Reynolds LF, Colin Moran 3B, Elias Diaz C, Kevin Newman SS, Montana DuRapau P. Kinda expected Eli back behind the dish after Cervy was bruised up last night, and K-Man's been hitting the ball, something that Tuck hasn't been doing very well. Also good to see Gregory back.

Pitchers: RHP Montana DuRapau (0-0/1.35) matches up against RHP Jon Gray (3-4/4.73). Guess Montana has become the designated Buc opener and why not? He did well enough in his last go, putting up a couple of zeroes before handing the ball off to Steven Brault. We assume it'll be the same righty-lefty combo tonight. Gray averages 10 K per nine innings, but other than a solid three-game string in mid-April, hasn't overwhelmed anyone. His 10 HR's served in 53 IP have hurt, with seven coming in his six road starts. He hasn't seen Pittsburgh since 2016, and hasn't fared well in his three career starts against them, giving up 14 runs in 12-2/3 IP.

Guess who gets to open again? (photo Dilip Vishwanat/Getty)

Notes:

• Clint said Cervy's four-game break wasn't injury related; he wanted to give Fran a little rest and a lot of cage time while getting Eli more involved. Diaz took advantage, going 8-for-17 and raising his BA from .135 to .241; he's still in SSS territory.
• The opener is an OK occasional concept, but the Pirates have a hole coming up against the Dodgers Saturday and a twin bill against Cincy on Monday; they're gonna have to get off the pot and find someone to start pretty soon. Our guess: Nick Kingham goes Saturday (maybe with Frankie as an opener; we'll have to see how abused the pen is by then) while Mitch Keller will be on schedule for the double header after starting last night. That seems like a good time to make him the 26th man, bring him up for the start and then have the option of returning him to Indy after the game if Super Two is a concern. But the FO works in mysterious ways...maybe Bob Walk is due for a comeback.
• Keone Kela is tossing a sim game today; we'll see where that leads.
• Tonight will be Clint's 2,500th game as a big league skipper.
• The O's got DFA'ed OF Keon Broxton from the Mets for international bonus money.