Pirates, Williams, look to take rubber match from Mets

This afternoon, like last night, the teams combine to produce a pair of underwhelming starting pitchers. Trevor Williams, who at the moment may be the most effective Pirates starter, with a 3.23 ERA in his last 4 starts, will try to allow fewer than 3 homers in the first 5 innings to the predominantly left handed Mets lineup. Meanwhile, don't let all the hype about Tyler Pill's 34 scoreless innings at Double-A fool you - he's a sinker/slider pitcher who average a tick under 90 on his fastball who's spent the last 4 years bouncing between Double-A and Triple-A, making his major league debut at age 27. On further thought, maybe the Clint Hurdle should be very, very afraid.

That could be the reason he failed to notice that today was Sunday. Hurdle runs out the exact same lineup as the first two games of the series, with the exception of the John Jaso spelling Gregory Polanco in right field and the previously ill Francisco Cervelli returning to catch, but in the 8 spot, where his emergency replacement Diaz had batted (rather successfully.)

The lineups for the 1:10 PM start in Citi Field (from where I returned at 5:30 AM this morning!)

Pirates

1 LF Frazier
2 2B Harrison
3 RF Jaso
4 3B Freese
5 1B Bell
6 CF McCutchen
7 SS Mercer
8 C Cervelli
9 P Williams

Mets

1 LF Conforto
2 SS Cabrera
3 RF Bruce
4 2B Walker
5 1B Duda
6 3B Flores
7 CF Granderson
8 C d'Arnaud
9 P Pill