Big Joe v Kyle Hendricks, Lineup & Notes - Tuck Is Back

Game: The homestand begins at 7:05 and will be on AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. It's a fre tee Friday, with the black shirt and city skyline design.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Bryan Reynolds LF, Starling Marte CF, Josh Bell 1B, Colin Moran 3B, Melky Cabrera RF, Kevin Newman SS, Jake Stallings C, Joe Musgrove P. Good to see Stalls back in action this quickly.

Big Joe kicks it off against the Cubs - photo Pittsburgh Pirates

Pitchers: RHP Joe Musgrove (8-11/4.71) takes on RHP Kyle Hendricks (8-9/3.48).  Big Joe has been erratic since July, alternating solid starts with not-so-much ones. In two starts against the Cubs, he's given up two runs, both unearned, in 9-1/3 IP, but is 0-1 for the effort.  Hendricks has been solid, but with a little patience, he can run up a pitch count pretty quickly. He's faced the Bucs once this year and was chased by rain after the Bucs had gotten to him for two runs in the three innings before the drops fell during his last start against Musgrove in early July.

Notes:

• The Pirates called up SS Cole Tucker and optioned RHP Geoff Hartlieb to Indy. That leaves the club with four SS/2B on the active roster, with Cole, Fraze, K-Man and Erik Gonzalez, which is usually one too many, so stay tuned...
• No Joey O this series; he's serving his suspension from the Reds set.
• Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic wonders if Clint is losing/lost the team (behind a paywall).
• Greg Brown is on "Oddcast" for Part 2 of his Pirates history lesson with John Schalcosky of Odd Pittsburgh.
• Jamo is ready to take on another rehab.
• Kang signed a minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers and was assigned to AAA San Antonio; LHP Tyler Lyons was claimed by the Yankees and also sent to AAA.
• Jared Hughes was waived by the Reds and claimed by the Phils.