The Pirates are 4-4 over the first eight games of their nine-game homestand, so the final result of the homestand lies on this afternoon’s game against the Astros. It’ll be AJ Burnett that gets the start today to try and get the win for the series and the homestand, going up against Wandy Rodriguez. Rodriguez has been pretty good thus far in 2012, though his 2.14 ERA is backed up by what is to this point the lowest strikout rate of his career.
Joel Hanrahan is back from the bereavement list for today’s game, which weirdly resulted in Dan McCutchen being placed on the 15-day DL with a strained oblique. He didn’t throw a pitch in the two games that he was up with the Pirates. He had options left, though, so there was no reason to put him on the DL to be replaced by Hanrahan if he wasn’t actually hurt. I dunno, it’s weird.
First pitch this afternoon is at 1:35.
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