Pittsburgh Pirates (19-25) vs. Cincinnati Reds (25-19)
7:10 PM, PNC Park
Brian Burres (2-1, 4.91) vs. Aaron Harang (2-5, 6.02)
Pirates' Batters vs. Aaron Harang
Ryan Doumit: 6/23, 2 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 6 K
Ronny Cedeno: 4/17, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 7 K
Andy LaRoche: 1/4, 1 HR, 1 RBI
Ryan Church: 2/3
Lastings Milledge: 0/3, 1 RBI, 1 K
Reds' Batters vs. Zach Duke
Orlando Cabrera: 5/11, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Jonny Gomes: 2/9, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Scott Rolen: 1/1, 1 BB
This is definitely a winnable game for the Pirates. Burres has been up and down this year, but for the most part it's been up and his last start was pretty solid when he went 6 innings and gave up 3 runs to the Brewers. His counterpart, Aaron Harang, has not been very good this year. In his last 4 starts he has gone 24.2 total innings and given up 13 runs, which isn't too bad but definitely beatable. He is striking out between 5 and 6 an outing, so we're gonna see some swings and misses from the Pirates tonight. Hopefully they can get the hits when they need them and get win number 20.
Another quick thing I want to to say is that there is no reason Neil Walker should not be starting at 2nd base tonight. In fact, there is no reason he should not have been starting at second base last Thursday. Numerous other Pirate bloggers have weighed in on this subject and we have all heard the story, but there is truly nothing to gain by playing Akinori Iwamura outside of trying to raise his trade value. The only reason we got him in the first place is because there was no immediate 2nd base prospects in the system that the club thought could take the job in the next couple years, but now there is in Neil Walker, so why are they wasting valuable playing time on Iwamura? They could be using these games to find out what they have in Walker at the major league level, he has very little more to gain in the minor leagues and is performing more than well enough to get the promotion, I don't know why management is hesitating, but hopefully they will pull the trigger in the next few days so we can finally get Iwamura on the bench (or possibly DL).
That is all, LET'S GO BUCS!