Game Thread: Pirates and Marlins Face Off for Rubber Match

Following up a come-back, walk off win on Wednesday night, the Piitsburgh Pirates will host the Miami Marlins one more time in game three on Thursday night. First pitch is set for 7:05 pm Eastern. The pitching matchup is certainly not one containing household names, as Pittsburgh righty Dario Agrazal (4-3, 4.50) will take on Elieser Hernandez (3-5, 5.06).

Hernandez is in his second year as a major league pitcher, and he went back and forth a bit between starter and reliever before sticking as a starter for the second half of the season. He’s gone six innings in four of his last five outings, but his ERA for the month of August was still a rough 5.23. A four-homer night against the Dodgers on August 14th ballooned his total to eight dongs over the course of six August starts.

Agrazal will be making his third start (fourth appearance) since being called back up due to the Chris Archer injury. He has limited his homers to just one long ball in Colorado during that span, but he’s struggled to get past the 5.0-inning mark in each of his last two starts. Agrazal will look to paint the corners and create soft contact like he does best against this Marlins team.

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MARLINS

1 R Jon Berti SS

2 R Starlin Castro 3B

3 R Garrett Cooper RF

4 S Neil Walker 1B

5 R Jorge Alfaro C

6 L Isan Diaz 2B

7 R Harold Ramirez LF

8 L Magneuris Sierra CF

9 R Elieser Hernandez RHP

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PIRATES

1 R Kevin Newman SS

2 S Bryan Reynolds CF

3 L Colin Moran 3B

4 S Josh Bell 1B

5 S Melky Cabrera RF

6 R Pablo Reyes LF

7 L Adam Frazier 2B

8 R Elias Diaz C

9 R Dario Agrazal RHP