1:15 PM, WPGB
Ian Snell (4-3, 3.06) vs. Kyle Lohse (1-6, 5.31).
This is an eminently winnable game for the Bucs. Lohse started the year hot, with four consecutive excellent starts and a 1.91 ERA. He even struck out twelve Cubs in a big win on April 15. Since then he's been, well, Kyle Lohse, and he's been lit up in all of his last three starts, even though one of them was in Dodger Stadium and one was against the Nationals.
Here's the box. Humberto Cota gets a rare start and bats eighth.
I'll be in the comments for this one, so feel free to join me.
I've been away from the computer lately, so here's a roundup of the things I've missed.
-P- The Pirates defeated the Reds yesterday in what, judging from the comments in the game thread, appears to have been another sloppy game. Zach Duke got the win despite registering only one strikeout, and Jason Bay went 3-for-5 with a homer. Reds starter Kirk Saarloos didn't record a single out.
-P- The crappy reliever train continues: Brian Rogers has been sent back to Indianapolis after getting pelted yesterday, and Josh Sharpless has been called up to take his place. There's a fair amount of love for Sharpless among serious Pirate fans, probably because he's a local boy and because he was a fairly exciting player a couple years ago, but he's 26 now and has run into pretty serious control problems at Indianapolis. We'll see whether he can get it together, but I don't expect this will turn out well. (The Reds, by the way have a crappy pitcher train of their own going on - they sent Saarloos back to Louisville after his terrible start and called up Bobby Livingston.)
-P- Ryan Doumit is still day-to-day after being struck in the head with a bat while catching Friday. He isn't in the starting lineup again today.
-P- The Pirates signed Josue Peley, a draft-and-follow who they picked in the 35th round of last year's draft. I can't find a whole lot of information about him and the Pirates are planning on converting him from shortstop to catcher, which seems weird, so my guess is he'll just be an organizational guy. Though he was born in Venezuela, he went to high school in Montreal. He had planned to play for TCU next year. He was on the Canadian national junior team in 2005.
-P- The Pirates' minor league pitching coordinator, Gary Ruby, has resigned, for "personal reasons." I have no idea what this means.