The Cardinals have already lost the first game of their double-header with the Cubs today, which means that no matter what happens in their nightcap, the Pirates can make up at least a half-game on the Cards with a win against the Padres tonight. My opinion is that they should do that.
Francisco Liriano starts for the Bucs tonight. With Starling Marte out and Josh Harrison on the DL, now Francisco Cervelli is a late scratch for an unknown reason, which means Chris Stewart is starting in his place. Stewart is fine, of course, but for a club that had no injury issues 72 hours ago, well, things are suddenly different. Tyson Ross starts for the Padres. The Pirates are 0-2 in games started by the Ross brothers this year, though I suppose they had more luck against Tyson in San Diego than they did against Joe in DC. Ross is walking quite a few batters this year, and so the way to get to him right now is probably to run his pitch count up and then try to make him pay for the free base runners. The Pirates were quite good at that sort of thing in 2013 and 2014, but they really have not been at any point in 2015. I suppose any night is a good night to start down that road, though.
First pitch is at 7:05.
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