Game thread, July 25: Pirates at Cardinals

Here is this afternoon’s lineup. First pitch will be at 2:15 p.m. EST, and the game will be televised on AT&T SportsNet.

The Pirates will look to even their record on the season at 1-1 after dropping Friday night’s season-opener, 5-4, to St. Louis. Today’s lineup will feature three new starters in Phillip Evans, John Ryan Murphy and Cole Tucker.

Evans will bat sixth and play third base as Colin Moran takes on the DH duties. Murphy will bat eighth and catch in place of Jacob Stallings, and Tucker will hit ninth and play right field.

The 27-year-old Evans, a 15^th-round draft pick of the Mets in 2011, first reached the big leagues with the Mets in 2017 and has appeared in 34 games at the major league level entering today’s game. The 5-foot-10, 210-pounder put together a .719 OPS in 2,862 career minor league at-bats over nine seasons.

Murphy, 29, took over the backup catching duties when the player he was competing with – Luke Maile – sustained a fractured right index finger and underwent surgery. Murphy, a second-round pick of the Yankees in 2009, has 18 home runs and 59 RBIs to go with a .622 OPS in 622 at-bats over parts of seven seasons.

Tucker, the Pirates’ top pick in the 2014 draft – 24^th overall – has been looked up on by most as the club’s shortstop of the future, but the emergence of Kevin Newman last year has prompted management to view Tucker in a different light. Very recently, the club began playing Tucker in the outfield, and he has looked impressive defensively in the early going. The question with him will be whether he can hit big league pitching.

The lineups:

PIRATES

1 — Kevin Newman, SS

2 — Bryan Reynolds, LF

3 — Adam Frazier, 2B

4 — Josh Bell, 1B

5 — Colin Moran, DH

6 — Phillip Evans, 3B

7 — Guillermo Heredia, CF

8 — John Ryan Murphy, C

9 — Cole Tucker, RF

CARDINALS

1 – Kolton Wong, 2B

2 – Tommy Edman, 3B

3 – Paul Goldschmidt, 1B

4 – Paul DeJong, SS

5 – Matt Carpenter, DH

6 – Yadier Molina, C

7 – Dexter Fowler, RF

8 – Tyler O’Neill, LF

9 – Harrison Bader, CF

PITCHERS: Trevor Williams vs. Adam Wainwright.