Twins Vs. Pirates, 20 June 2012

The Pirates look to make it four straight tonight in the heat over at PNC Park at 7:05. Erik Bedard (4-7, 4.36) takes the mound for the Bucs while Francisco Liriano (1-7, 6.24) twirls for the Twins. Bedard has failed to make it past the third inning in two of his last three starts and was hit hard by the Orioles the last time out giving up eight hits and seven runs in 3.1 innings. Liriano has been a little better of late after a disastrous start to the season. Last time out against Milwaukee he went six innings and only gave up one hit, but he walked four while striking out six, giving up three runs. The Pirates are 9-1 in games started by lefties at PNC this season.

-P- The Pirates take a 7-6 interleague record into tonight's game and currently sit in second place 2.5 games behind the Cincinnati Reds.

-P- One of the keys to being a good team is consistently beating the bad teams and the Pirates have done that this year. They are 19-8 (.704) against teams at or below .500 and their next 16 games are against teams .500 or below. They are also a much-improved 20-11 (.645) at The Friendly Confines of PNC (?) and have won five straight and nine of their last ten after going only 36-45 (.444) last year.

-P- The Bucs lead the majors with 20 stolen bases in the month of June, and their 82 runs scored ranks third in the NL.

With a lefty on the mound again tonight Clint Hurdle is going with the same lineup, except the battery:

Jose Tabata 7
Josh Harrison 9
Andrew McCutchen 8
Casey McGehee 3
Neil Walker 4
Pedro Alvarez 5
Clint Barmes 6
Michael McKenry 2
Erik Bedard 1

Gerrit Cole makes his AA debut for Altoona tonight.