Bucs Ride Correia To 4-1 Win

Ryan Vogelsong and Kevin Correia, a pair of 2011 All-Stars, hooked up today. Nate Scheirholtz, the Giant rightfielder, ran down a blast from Cutch on a ball that would have left PNC Park, capping a 1-2-3 first inning for Vogelsong. San Fran went down quietly, too.

The second started off nicely when Garrett Jones popped a lead off homer over the fence in right and Neil Walker followed by dropping a soft knock to left. Pedro Alvarez whiffed, swinging at a shoulder high heater. Clint Barmes lined a single to right, going inside out (or maybe late) on a fastball. Mike McKenry drew a 3-2 walk, bringing up Correia with the bases packed. KC popped up to first, leaving it up to Alex Presley.

He didn't exactly crush the ball, but beat out a bleeder to first, and the Bucs were up 2-0. Jose Tabata had a chance to give the Pirates an early big cushion, but bounced a 1-2 slider to second to end the frame. Correia put down the G-Men in order again, although the appropriately named Brain Belt drilled one to wall in left center that McCutch hauled in.

Cutch started off the third with a hard earned, seven pitch walk. But he was nailed stealing by Buster Posey (maybe on a hit-and-run that backfired), and Jones K'ed swinging two pitches later. Walker swung at a low 3-2 slider and bounced out to first to end the frame. Vogelsong struggled - he went 3-2 to every hitter - but the Bucs couldn't take advantage.

After retiring seven in a row, Emmanuel Burriss got the first Giant knock when his hard grounder went off Jone's glove and into right. Vogelsong bunted him to second. KC lost Angel Pagan on a 3-2 slider in the dirt, but got the dangerous Melky Cabrera to ground out to Walker, keeping the score 2-0.

It went quietly until the bottom of the fifth. Belt drilled one up the line and off Jone's mitt for a lead off double. Two ground outs later, the Giants had manufactured a run and cut the lead to 2-1. The Pirates went down in order in the sixth, while the Bay Boys stirred up a little two out trouble.

Pablo Sandoval rolled a ball up the middle and Buster Posey reached on a Barmes boot. KC got the hot Schierholtz to bounce out 1-3, but the frame ran his pitch count up to 91. He worked six innings, giving up a run on three hits and a walk with a pair of Ks.

The Bucs tried to get something going in the seventh. After Alvarez K'ed swinging at a high heater again, Barmes got plunked and McKenry worked a 3-2 walk out of Vogelsong. That brought on Clay Hensley for the Giants - Vogelsong hadn't given up a hit since the second - and Yamaico Navarro for the Bucs, grabbing KC's at-bat. He struck out swinging on a 2-2 pitch after watching two strikes drop in, seeing nothing but sinkers.

The righty Hensley worked around Presley, walking him on four pitches, to get to Jose Tabata. The right fielder got into a quick 1-2 hole, watching two strikes go by, and struck out swinging at a curve. He left six runners on, twice coming up empty with the bases loaded and two outs. Jared Hughes came on after the stretch, and Casey McGehee took over at first from Jones.

With one away, Brandon Crawford banged one off the wall in left center for a double. A bouncer moved him to third, and the Giants sent Aubrey Huff to the dish. Hughes fell behind 3-0, came back to run the count full, and got him on a fly to left to keep it at 2-1.

The middle of the Buc order came up in the eighth to face Dan Otero. Cutch led off by spanking a single into left. McGehee lined the next pitch into center to put runners at first and second. Bruce Bochy saw enough and brought in Jeremy Affeldt to turn Walker around. He crossed them up and bunted; Sandoval was slow to the ball and threw it away, bringing home Cutch and leaving runners at the corners.

Harrison batted for Pedro and laid down a straight squeeze, easily plating McGehee and moving Walker to second. It was now 4-1. Barmes popped out, and McKenry drew his third walk of the afternoon. Nate McLouth stepped in for Hughes, and his comebacker ended the frame. Jason Grilli took the hill.

But it wasn't over yet. Getting second life when an apparent strike three was called ball three, Angel Pagan drilled a leadoff triple to right. An out later, he walked the free swinging Sandoval to bring the tying run to the dish, Buster Posey. No worries there; Grilli punched him out on three pitches as he looked at a slider for strike three. Scheirholtz flew out to center on a 3-2 pitch, and Grilli escaped without any damage.

Affeldt stayed in, and Presley greeted him with a single up the middle. That brought in Guillermo Moto to face Tabata, who moved The King along with a bouncer to second. Cutch flew out deep to right again, watching another PNC homer drop into Schierholtz's mitt. Presley moved to third, where he remained as McGehee flew out. It was Hanny time.

With a three run lead, Hanrahan came with heat. Belt walked on 3-2 pitch that just missed. After an out, Burriss waked on a 3-2 heater. Hanny went 3-2 on Greg Blanco, too, and got him on a fly to Presley. Pagan got ahead 3-1, fouled a couple off, and finally lifted one to Tabata. It took 31 pitches to earn, but Joel Hanrahan had his first save of 2012.

Well, it took a lot of small ball, 57 pitches by Jason Grilli and Joel Hanrahan to close out the last two innings, and an 0-for-11 with RISP performance from the G-Men, but the Jolly Roger waves over the West Coast for the first time this year. Erik Bedard will take on Joe Saunders in a battle of the lefties at Arizona tomorrow night.

And it raises an interesting question: if Correia keeps on like this, just who is going to go to the bullpen when AJ Burnett returns in a couple of weeks? That'll be an interesting sidebar story to watch as the month rolls along.

• Kevin Correia got the first win by a Pirate starter this season, and the Bucs broke a five game losing streak for their first road victory.
• This was the first time this season that the Giants were held to under four runs.
• Bad news for the Giants. Closer Brian Wilson is officially out for the season and is likely to undergo his second Tommy John surgery.
• Starling Marte has a nine game hitting streak for Indy. Hope Jose Tabata is paying attention. 

Giants Lineup, Pre-Game Notes

RHP Kevin Correia goes against RHP Ryan Vogelsong at 4:05 PM. KC went 10-3 with a 2.64 ERA in 14 starts on the road last year, and threw pretty well against LA in his last start. It will be Vogelsong's first outing of the season, as he's been bothered by back pains since camp and just came off the DL after two minor-league starts. The game will be shown on Root Sports.

The lineup: Alex Presley LF, Jose Tabata RF, Andrew McCutchen CF, Garrett Jones 1B, Neil Walker 2B,  Pedro Alvarez 3B, Clint Barmes SS, Mike McKenry C, Kevin Correia P.

Following the game today the Pirates head to Arizona, where their nine-game West Coast road trip ends with a three-game set beginning tomorrow night. LHP Erik Bedard will open against LHP Joe Saunders.

• The Giants have won 10 of their last 13 games against the Pirates in San Francisco.
• It's been a given that this will probably be Joel Hanrahan's last year in a Bucco uniform, due to GMs generally overvaluing/overpaying for closers and his impending $7M price tag in 2013 if he can come close to last season's production. Tim Williams of Pirate Prospects adds his reasoning behind moving Hanny.
• Neil Walker is 13-for-23 (.565) with 31 RBI in his career with the bases loaded.
• Six of Pittsburgh's first eight games have been decided by one run. The Bucs are 2-4 in those matches.
• Today is "Jackie Robinson Day," celebrating his debut on April 15th, 1947 that broke baseball's color line. Every player and coach will be wearing uniform #42 today in honor of Robinson, whose number 42 was retired by Major League Baseball in 1997.

Hague, Sunday Notes

When the Pirates sent down Matt Hague yesterday, they cited getting him everyday at-bats and more time at third as the primary reasons for the decision, and that's sound reasoning. But we think a case could have been made that was equally strong to have shipped Josh Harrison to Indy.

Our logic is that without Hague, the Pirates are locked into Casey McGehee as Garrett Jones platoon shadow at first, leaving Harrison and Yamaico Navarro as Pedro Alvarez's dance partners. Without going into deep analysis, we think it would make more sense to construct a righty lineup with Hague at first and McGehee at his natural spot at the hot corner.

Hague projects as a sort of Casey Kotchman clone with a little more upside if his spring performance is any indicator, the kind of guy that you can slip into the six hole. And his minor league stat line shows that his splits are fairly even, so he can be used off the bench against a righty.

We have no beef with Harrison. He puts the ball in play, is versatile and can run, some fairly valuable attributes for a guy who comes off the bench, and has shown that he's not out of water in the show. With the starts that Jones (a notoriously streaky hitter) and Alvarez have had, the corner positions could be up for grabs by mid-June, and we posit that McGehee and Hague would be a more productive duo and a bit better in the field than Harrison or Navarro with McGehee.

So we'll see. The FO has said that Harrison and Hague may yo-yo between Indy and Pittsburgh all year (and Navarro, if Harrison can handle SS), depending on the team situation and upcoming matchups. They all have multiple options left, so that scenario could easily unfold..

It also could be that the management is just buying some time to see if Alvarez and Jones can hit their way out of their funk and if McGehee can continue to square up on the ball. After all, eight games and twenty or so at-bats is a mighty small sample size, and in the longer view it may pay to keep Hague in a daily groove. Still, in the short term, we'd rather see Hague's bat in the Pirate lineup, at least against lefties.

At any rate, we're talking a few weeks to allow the Pirate offense to settle in, one way or another. The team dynamics and needs should be clearer in June.

• AJ Burnett will make another rehab start on Monday, this time with Indy. Depending on the results, he could be two minor league starts away from rejoining the team.
• The Pirates plan to alternate Matt Hague at first and third while he's in the minors. Hague was drafted as a third baseman, and was shifted to first partly because of a crowd of young hot sackers entering the organization and partly because he didn't field the position all that well.
• An interesting tale of TV revenue by Bob Cohn of the Trib. He writes that "in this era of expanding revenues, the Pirates apparently missed the boat, if not the gravy train" with their Root Sports deal.
  
  
  

Pirates Fall Short Again 4-3

Well, Charlie Morton is back. And the Giants welcomed his return by sending up a lineup that hit entirely from the left side. Might as well find out quick if Morton has figured out how to work those pesky lefties yet, seeing how they put up a .364/.460/.500 line against him last year.

But hey, to our surprise, it was the Buccos who put a quick hurt on Barry Zito. After two were down in the first, Cutch and Casey McGehee banged out back-to-back knocks and Rod Barajas walked to load the sacks. Neil Walker, who hasn't been able to buy a base hit in the early sledding, finally "found some grass," as Clint Hurdle would say, and rifled a change up into left to bring home a pair and give the Bucs the biggest lead they've held all season at 2-0. They were his first RBI of the year, and tied him for the team lead.

Morton got through the first surrendering just a single, but wasn't so effective in the second. Hector Sanchez led off with a single and Nate Schierholtz promptly tripled him home. Two more singles tied the game and had Morton in some serious hot water with runners on the corners. But Zito helped the cause when he popped up bunting, and a pair of grounders later, the storm had been weathered, although the game was tied.

The next two frames went by quietly, with a two-out triple by Josh Harrison wasted in the fourth. In the fifth, Alex Presley knocked one up the middle with one away and came around a hitter later when Pablo Sandoval booted Jose Tabata's grounder and Brandon Crawford threw the ball away. JT stole third an out later, but like Harrison, stayed there.

The G-Men quickly got the run back. With one out, Angel Pagan, who owns Morton (9-for-12), blasted a triple. Melky Cabrera followed with a well hit ball to first, but McGehee was equal to the task and made the play, freezing Pagan. He jogged in, though, after a dribbler by Sandoval was fielded by Morton and then thrown away for a single and error, making it 3-3.

That would be the last frame for Morton, who went five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits with two Ks after 71 pitches, and at one point retired ten consecutive Giants. Anthony Watson took the hill.

The Bucs put two on with two away in the following inning. Walker hit a one-away single and Barmes reached an out later when Panda booted another ball, but pinch hitter Yamaico Navarro flew out to douse the fire. Watson gave up a one-out double to Schierholtz, who was stranded.

The Bucs went down in order in the seventh, and Juan Cruz shut the door on the G-Men, yielding a two-away walk. In the eighth, Santiago Casilla came in for San Francisco and Jason Grilli for the Pirates; both worked 1-2-3 innings.

Garrett Jones, pinch hitting in the ninth against Casilla, managed a two-out infield single and stole second, but died there as Javier Lopez came in to get Presley swinging. Chris Resop took the hill for Pittsburgh. Emmanuel Burriss started off with a knock to right, and Ryan Theriot, after failing to bunt, rolled a ball into right to put runners on the corners after catching a call on a 2-2 curve that seemed to have caught him looking.

Pagan was intentionally walked to load the bases. Cabrera worked the count to 3-2 and hit the ball sharply to short. Barmes's throw for the force was in the dirt, Barajas couldn't pick it at his feet, and that was the game. Kinda ironic that the two guys the FO brought in to bring some defensive stability to the team couldn't make a pitch-and-catch play.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Bucs. And though they scored three runs, the attack still only produced seven hits and the team was 1-for-7 with RISP. That makes them 1-for-21 on the Coast.

And just like Philly manager Charlie Manuel caught heat for saving his closer, so will Clint Hurdle. The book says to ice your finisher on the road until you have the lead, and Hurdle stuck to the book. While there may be some logic to that chestnut, it would make sense to bring on Hanny in a high leverage, bases jammed situation instead of sticking with Resop. If you won't use him to win games, maybe it is time to trade him.

Kevin Correia faces off against Ryan Vogelsong tomorrow afternoon.

• Gerritt Cole had a tough day on the bump for Bradenton. He lasted three innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits and two walks with four Ks. He gave up two first-inning homers. Altoona's Brandon Cumpton threw a strong game, going seven innings, allowing a run on four hits and a walk with 4 strikeouts. One of the hits left the yard, and the Curve lost 1-0.

Hague Optioned; Line Up, Pre-Game Notes

The loser of the Charlie Morton lottery is Matt Hague, who was sent down to Indy to clear a roster space for the right hander. We were a little surprised, as we thought he and Casey McGehee were a natural right-handed platoon. The FO and Clint Hurdle have opted to keep McGehee as the first base partner of Garrett Jones and use Josh Harrison or Yamaico Navarro at third as needed.

The game: Charlie Morton faces Barry Zito tonight. In 2011, Morton led the MLB with a 76% ground ball rate and surrendered just six home runs, the fewest amount given up among pitchers with at least 100 IP, on his way to a 10-10/3.83 line. The game is at 9:05 PM and will be broadcast on Root Sports.

The lineup: Alex Presley LF, Jose Tabata RF, Andrew McCutchen CF, Casey McGehee 1B, Rod Barajas C, Neil Walker 2B, Josh Harrison 3B, Clint Barmes SS, Charlie Morton P.

Clint is back to his usual lefty lineup with Harrison replacing Hague.

• Morton is making his first start after rehabbing from October hip surgery. His recovery was uneventful, and Morton has missed just one turn in the rotation.
• The other team has scored the first run in six of the first seven games and scored at least once in the first inning five times. The Pirates have played with the lead just once so far this season, and that only lasted 1/2 inning.

Saturday Morning Stuff

RHP Charlie Morton will make his first start of the year against the Giants LHP Barry Zito tonight. Zito tossed a shutout against the Rockies in his 2012 debut. The game begins at 9:05 PM and will be shown on Root Sports.

• Despite giving up a season-high five runs yesterday, Pittsburgh hurlers have a 2.70 ERA (NL average - 3.64), including a 2.88 mark from its starters. The only downer is that they've gotten just 40 K's in 60 IP, but that's offset by a league leading .916 WHIP. The G-Men are a good test. The Giants are averaging 5.4 runs per game and have scored four or more runs in all seven games this year.
• Pirate free agents Clint Barmes and Rod Barajas are 3-for-36 (.083) with 11 K's and no walks during the opening week of play. Also off to icy starts are Neil Walker and Garrett Jones, who are 3-for-35 (.086) with 9 Ks and a walk between them. And then there's Pedro Alvarez, who is 1-for-16 (.063) with 10 Ks.
• Cutch's five-game hit streak came to an end against Matt Cain.
• The Pirates haven't had a hit with RISP since they left Pittsburgh.
• It's early, but Joel Hanrahan has yet to pitch in a save situation this season. He does have a win against Philly.
• There were some solid pitching performances in the minors on Friday. Brad Lincoln went seven innings for Indy, giving up two runs on six hits with 3 Ks. Nate Baker threw a two-hit shutout in his six innings of work for Altoona, walking three and striking out one. And Bradenton's Jameson Taillon went five frames, allowing a run on three hits with six whiffs.
• West Virginia SS Alen Hanson was on Baseball America's Hotsheet "Helium Watch." They say that "he profiles as an offensive-oriented, switch-hitting middle infielder."
• Looking ahead, Chris Crawford of MLB Draft Insider held a a mock draft, with the Pirates selecting Texas A&M RHP Michael Wacha, a fastball-change up-hook pitcher with outstanding control.
• Aaron Harang of the Dodgers struck out nine consecutive Padres last night, coming within one of tying Tom Terrific's 1970 record of ten straight punchouts.
• A-Rod hit his first homer of the season off the Angels Ervin Santana, moving into a tie with former teammate Ken Griffey Jr. for fifth place on the all-time list with 630 career homers.
• The cost of doing business: Jayson Starks of ESPN notes that "This will be the first season ever in which no teams have a payroll of less than $50 million. As recently as last year, there were five."
• A couple of vets signed one-day contracts so they could retire from their team of choice - Pat Burrell with Philadelphia and Mike Cameron with Seattle. Cameron had eight different teams to choose from, although he did spend four years with the Ms.

Cain One-Hits Bucs in 5-0 Giant Romp

How bad can it get? Well, Matt Cain retired the first 17 batters he faced before the perfect game was ruined by James McDonald. Really, how much do the Pirates expect from their pitchers?

Sadly, J-Mac didn't toss quite as well as he hit. He struggled through the first frame, though he picked up the pace afterward.

With two away and Melky Cabrera on first after a one-out single, Buster Posey cracked a double to bring bring one run in on a tight play at the plate and Aubrey Huff lined a knock to right to make it 2-0. The next four innings went by innocently enough. The Giants never got a runner past first, and the Bucs never got a runner to first.

McDonald got the Buc's first knock in the sixth when he rolled one into left, and the G-Men answered by tacking on another run. Pablo Sandovel crushed a one-away two bagger to right on a ball that was nicely played by Garrett Jones to prevent even more problems. Posey flew out, and Huff was walked to get to Nate Schierholtz. Almost worked, too, but Cutch misjudged a short fly into center, first backpedaling on a ball that dropped in front of him, and it was 3-0.

Tony Watson came on to get the final out. McDonald went 5-2/3 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and three walks with a K after throwing 88 pitches.Evan Meek tossed a 1-2-3 seventh, and Hanny came on to knock off some rust in the eighth. He gave up a lead-off single to Cabrera, who two outs later was standing on third after a stolen base and wild pitch.

Hanrahan fell behind Huff 3-0 and fed him a couple of heaters. The first was a called strike, and the second was on the inside half of the plate above the knees and splashed down in McCovey Cove, making it 5-0. Cain just kept dicing Buccos, putting together a string of 10 straight outs after J-Mac's knock.

He finished with a one-hit shutout, punching out 11 Pirates on 106 pitches. Casey McGehee was the only Buc batter that had a clue today, twice driving deep outs into the forgiving center field of AT&T Park.

Pedro Alvarez and Jones went down three times, and Alex Presley and Neil Walker each whiffed twice. The Pirate pitchers continued a couple of disturbing trends, giving up first inning runs and two-out tallies. All five Giant runs came with two away.

Though not officially announced, it's expected the Pirates will throw Charlie Morton against Barry Zito tomorrow night. If so, a position player has to be taken off the big league roster and sent to Indy. And there are sure a lot of candidates to choose from.

• If you're wondering, the last time the Pirates were no-hit was on August 14, 1971, by Card Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson at Three Rivers Stadium. He struck out 10 in a 11-0 victory.

Giant Pre-Game And Notes

RHP James McDonald goes against RHP Matt Cain at 4:35 PM today maybe; there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms in the Bay area. The game is on radio only. Cain was roughed up in his first outing, giving up two homers and five runs in six frames against the D-Backs. J-Mac was up-and-down against the Phillies in his first go-around, but gave the team an OK six inning, two-run performance.

Today's lineup: Alex Presley LF, Neil Walker 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Casey McGehee 1B, Garrett Jones RF, Rod Barajas C, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Josh Harrison SS, James McDonald P.

We're don't think Clint Hurdle should be hitting the panic button after six games, but by the lineup, it sure looks like he may be reaching for it.

• The Pirates went 2-1 at AT&T Park last season. Since 2004, the Bucs have a 15-10 record  in San Francisco.
• Freddy Sanchez is on the 15 day DL, still recovering from last season's June shoulder surgery.
• Andrew McCutchen, Alex Presley and Casey McGehee have 21 of the Pirates' 38 hits. The trio is hitting .368 (21-for-57). The rest of the team is batting .127 (17-for-134).
• The Pirates struck out 27 times while drawing just 2 walks against the Dodgers. Teams are really going after the Pirate hitters, as they should: the club is hitting just .110 when behind in the count.
• The Giants aren't the only club celebrating its home opener today. There are seven other teams - the Braves, Mariners, Red Sox, Royals, White Sox, Yankees and Cardinals - that are getting their first taste of home cookin' today. 
• Speaking of home openers, the West Virginia Power had theirs last night and treated the fans to a 5-1 win over Greenville. Indy has its home opener tonight versus Toledo with Brad Lincoln on the hill.

Big Hit Never Comes; Bucs Swept 3-2

Aye, Carumba. The Dodgers jumped on Jeff Karstens for three firast inning runs, and you kinda got the feeling that the game was over. Well, that feeling was right on as the Bucs couldn't come back and went down 3-2.

The Pirates made an effort to get on the board first when Andrew McCutchen got aboard on a two-out infield single and Casey McGehee followed with another knock, but unlikely five-hole hitter Yamaico Navarro popped to short to end the frame. The Dodgers would convert their chances in the first.

After an out, Mark Ellis singled and Matt Kemp golfed a curve for a double. Andre Ethier was drilled in the back with a fastball to load the bases for Juan Rivera, who lofted a sacrifice fly. Most of the damage came after two were away when James Loney rolled a single into left and Juan Uribe dropped a soft knock into center to bring home another pair of runs.

It looked like plenty after Capuano struck out the side in the second after notching a pair of K's in the first. The part that hurt was four of the five victims were caught looking at sinking fastballs, none of which broke 90 on the gun. Karstens was in the groove, too.

Like he did against the Phillies after being roughed up in the first, he found his mojo and mowed down nine straight Dodgers. He did run into problems in the fourth and fifth, though, stranding a pair of runners each frame.

The Bucs finally got on the board in the fifth when Mike McKenry caught one of those sinking heaters and drove it over the centerfield wall. They caught up to Capuano in the sixth.

Cutch and McGehee again hit back-to-back singles, this time to start the frame. With runners at first and third, Navarro lifted a sac fly to left to make it 3-2. A Clint Barmes single and McKenry walk were sandwiched around a Pedro Alvarez force-out to load the bases with two away.

Karstens was due at the plate (he pitched five innings and allowed three runs on seven hits, and Clint Hurdle called on Garrett Jones to grab a bat.  Don Mattingly countered with lefty Scott Elbert, and Hurdle trumped him when Hague replaced Jones. He caught a 1-0 four seamer on the nose, but his rocket to center was right at Kemp, and that, for all intents and purposes, was the game.

The seventh was more frustration. Jose Tabata bounced a single of the pitcher, but was promptly erased when pinch hitter Neil Walker bounced into a 1-6-3 DP. Cutch followed with a knock, and was caught stealing.

That was all the noise left in the game. Both bullpens traded zeroes, and the Bucs were swept out of LA.

There is some hope, though, that the Pirates can bounce out of their hitting slump. Two stats particularly stand out: their 25.7% line drive rate (NL average - 20.5%) and dismal batted ball in play average of .246, the league's lowest (NL average - .280). Sooner or later, something has to fall in.

• Can't blame the middle of the order for the loss. Andrew McCutchen went 3-for-3 with a run scored and a walk, and Casey McGehee was 2-for-4.
• Pirate pitchers have allowed a first inning score in four of the Bucs first six games.
• Pittsburgh is 4-for-34 (.118) with RISP.
• The Dodgers now have a six-game winning streak over the Pirates, with victories in nine of the last ten matches. Their current 6-1 start is Blue's best since 1981.
• The Pirates continue their west coast road trip with a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants starting today and then they're off to Arizona to face the Diamondbacks on Monday.
• AJ Burnett will make his next rehab start at Indy on Monday, where they hope to get him up to the 80-85 pitch mark after throwing just 41 pitches in his last start at Bradenton.

Buc Lineup, Game Notes

Tonight's 10:10 PM game, which will be shown on Root Sports, will match RHP Jeff Karstens vs. LHP Chris Capuano. Capuano is 4-7 in 15 starts against the Bucs with a 5.79 ERA, so the Pirates get their first reprieve of the season from the Murderer's Row of pitching talent they've faced.

The lineup: Jose Tabata RF, Josh Harrison 2B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Casey McGehee 1B, Yamaico Navarro LF, Clint Barmes SS, Pedro Alvarez 3B, Mike McKenry C, Jeff Karstens P.

Clint Hurdle is really shaking up the lineup tonight. Harrison and Navarro are making their first starts of the young season, with Neil Walker and Alex Presley, the team's most consistent hitter, taking seats.

He may be giving Harrison and Navarro a quick quiz, as somebody has to go down Saturday when Charlie Morton returns. Alvarez playing against a lefty is no surprise; Hurdle protected him against Cliff Lee and Clayton Kershaw, but Capuano isn't at their level. McKenry gets the start as it's a night game followed by a day game.

• The Pirates have yet to earn a base on balls off the LA staff, and have worked a MLB low five free passes in their first five games.
• The Pittsburgh pitching staff is leading the Majors with a 2.05 team ERA.
• The Bucs have dropped five straight games at Dodger Stadium and have lost seven of their last eight games played in LA.
• Alex Presley has hit safely in each of the first five games and has produced a .301 BA over the last two seasons (57 games) with the Pirates.
• In their upcoming Giant series, the Pirates will face Matt Cain, Barry Zito and Ryan Vogelsong. Tomorrow's 4:35 PM game will be SF's home opener. It will be an emotional return for Buster Posey, who will be playing his first regular-season game at AT&T Park since splintering his left leg last May 25th at a play at the plate.