Opening Day Notes & Lineup

Game: The Opener takes place at Busch Stadium against the Division champ St. Louis Cards, with Derek Shelton making his debut as an MLB skipper. It starts at 8:15 and will be on AT&T Sportsnet & The Fan.

Lineup: Kevin Newman SS; Bryan Reynolds, LF; Adam Frazier, 2B; Josh Bell, 1B; Colin Moran, 3B; José Osuna, DH; Guillermo Heredia, RF; Jacob Stallings, C; Jarrod Dyson, CF and Joe Musgrove on the hill. Joey O becomes the first Pirates DH in an NL regular-season game; there was some thought that Jose would be in the field and J-Bell the DH.

Bryan Reynolds looking to keep on keepin' on - 2019 Topps Gallery

Pitchers: RHP Big Joe Musgrove takes on RHP Jack Flaherty. The Cards owned Joe last year (he was 0-4/10.00 against them in four outings) and Flaherty owned the Bucs (1-0/0.60 in two starts). So we'll see if 2020 can shake those numbers up some.

Notes:

• Hidden edge: the pens may make a big diff. The Pirates relief corp, sans Keona Kela, struggled mightily against the Indians in the three-game exhibition set prior to this series, while the Cards are loaded up with Kwang Hyun Kim, Andrew Miller, Ryan Helsley, John Gant and Daniel Ponce de Leon.
• Josh Bell and Fraze are the only two Bucs who were in the starting lineup for last year's Opening Day match against the Reds.
• Buffalo landed the lost sheep of MLB, the Toronto Blue Jays. Say what you will, it's good to see Buffalo finally get something nice.