Jeff Locke gets the start today. Last time out he struck out a season high six and only walked one hitter, so hopefully he can build on that today. Lucas Harrell goes for the Astros. You don't need me to tell you this since he pitches for the Astros, but Lucas Harrell has not been very good this year. He has as many walks as strikeouts and he's given up seven homers in just under 50 innings. The Pirates' offense hasn't done a ton in this series against the Astros. Maybe today's the day to change that. First pitch is at 1:35.

The mantra for this series is: beat the Astros and if that fails, at least get out of the way so that the Astros can beat themselves. First pitch tonight is at 7:05.

Hat tip: @AnthraxJones and UniWatch

Francisco Liriano was much the same as his debut against the Mets; his control was good, he generated a bunch of swings and misses, and he had to throw a ton of pitches just to get through 5 2/3 innings. I'd like to see him last a little deeper into the games, but for now I'll definitely take 5 2/3 innings, seven strikeouts, two walks, and a run from Liriano. The Pirates can get away with that for as long as Justin Wilson is pitching like a multiple-inning bullpen ace; he came in tonight to bail Liriano out of trouble in the sixth, pitched a perfect seventh, and by the time the eighth inning rolled around the game was over. 

I can't say for sure, but I think when Andrew McCutchen emerged from Tuesday night's home plate dog-pile yelling, "Come on! Come on!" this is the end to the series that he had in mind. This is the fourth straight four-game series that the Pirates have won the last three games of, it gives them a winning record against the Brewers for the year, and it puts them at a season-high seven games over .500 with the Astros and Cubs next on the schedule. This is a good time to be playing good baseball. Let's hope the Pirates can keep it up. 

Francisco Liriano makes his second start as a Pirate tonight, and I'm curious to see how he looks against a lineup with way more punch in it than the Mets have. It sure seemed like Liriano's stuff had good movement and that he had good command of it against the Mets, but I think we'll learn quite a bit more about where he is right now from a start against the Brewers. The Brewers are sending Hiram Burgos to the mound. In his last start, he got rocked for 11 hits and 12 runs (10 earned) against the Reds. His start before that was against the Pirates, where he was decent but also allowed homers to Mike McKenry and Pedro Alvarez. I'd like to see the Bucs pile some runs on Burgos so that Liriano has a bit of a cushion. 

First pitch tonight is at 7:05.

First pitch tonight is at 7:05.

Watch the replay all the way through. Andrew McCutchen drives the ball into deep right center and bolts out of the box like a shot. This was no no-doubt homer. He hits second base at full speed, sees the ball is gone, gives a point, slows up around third, takes off his helmet, exults in the moment with his teammates for just a second, and comes out of the dogpile almost looking angry, yelling, "Come on! Come on!" 

It's early yet, but this Pirate team could be something different than any Pirate team in recent memory. You know it and I know it and the players all know it. That's not to deny that there's a long row to hoe ahead and that things can go wrong at any number of points along the journey. You know that and I know that and no one knows that better than the players that have played through the last two seasons. But if this Pirate team is going to be different, they can't be doormats for anyone. That includes the Brewers. There can't be talk about curses or bad luck or wallowing in Brewer-related misery or anything of the sort. That's what losers do. 

Andrew McCutchen had an opportunity to put his team on his back and start to move them past all of that. It's only a step, but it's a step nonetheless. The Pirates have won two of their last three against the Brewers. In baseball, everything starts with one game but one game can't be any more than one game in a vacuum. I say this is as good a place as any to start building. 

Marco Estrada's biggest problem this year has been giving up home runs. The Pirates didn't hit any tonight.

Gah. The Pirates being unable to beat the Brewers is the most annoying thing in sports.

AJ Burnett takes the mound tonight against Marco Estrada. AJ Burnett leads the NL in strikeouts. Marco Estrada leads the NL in homers allowed. The implication here is clear, I think. The first pitch is at 7:05.

This is what John McDonald has done in 34 plate appearances as a Pirate: two hits (one double), three walks, one HBP. 

This is what Jordy Mercer has done in 32 plate appearances as a Pirate: eight hits (two doubles, three home runs), one walk. 

The Pirates currently have both a second baseman and a third baseman that can't really hit left-handed pitching at all, plus they have a slick fielding shortstop that cannot hit at all on a team with a pitching staff that is third in the National League in strikeouts. Jordy Mercer is a useful player for them. John McDonald is a husk of a baseball player. His only real function is to allow Clint Hurdle to use a pinch-hitter or double switch for Clint Barmes late in games, but the end result of that is that occasionally, John McDonald comes to bat in a big situation. He's the most ridiculously niche luxury player I can think of on a team that can't really afford to waste roster spots. 

Instead of Mercer playing once or twice a week against lefties and once or twice a week in place of Barmes, Brandon Inge will continue to play second and/or third against lefties and McDonald will start once a week instead of Barmes. The Pirates are substantially worse using their players like this. It's ridiculous. There's no excuse for it.

Read about Derek Jeter's "hi butt" and Johnny Damon's "strong face!" Do you think that when Littlefield said Ron Villone was going to be a #2 starter, he had the 2002 Pirates (his first full year as general manager!) in mind? 

This is certainly unfair to Littlefield. I don't really mind.

Important hat-tip to @Ugarles for sending me this WSJ article, helping me to realize that there were Littlefield reports in the HOF database. 

There were a lot of ways that the Pirates could've lost this Sunday afternoon game against the Mets. They had a chance to really deliver a knockout punch to Matt Harvey in the second when Clint Barmes lead off the inning with his second homer (his first homer was against Stephen Strasburg, go figure) and then they loaded the bases up with just one out. All they got from that was one more run at a 2-1 lead that looked awfully shaky when Jeanmar Gomez had to leave the game after five innings due to tightness in his leg after being hit by a groundball in the first inning. 

Justin Wilson's wildness on the mound lead the Mets to tie the game up in the seventh, but then the Pirates got the run back in the eighth with a Pedro Alvarez RBI single (Alvarez also had a double off of Harvey and has now surpassed the Mendoza line!). That one run lead felt significantly different with Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli looming, but for the first time all year Melancon got himself into a bit of trouble with the game on the line. He served up a double to Daniel Murphy, who advanced to third on a passed ball by Mike McKenry (who had an awful game behind the plate) with one out. After the Pirates walked David Wright semi-intentionally, Melancon struck out Ike Davis with a nasty curveball to get the second out. Lucas Duda then smoked a ground ball down the first base line that popped up straight off of the bag. Somehow, though, it turned just enough towards second base that Brandon Inge was there waiting for it and he grabbed the ball and threw it to Melancon covering first for the third out. There's nothing wrong with being lucky. The ninth inning with Jason Grilli went much more smoothly; Grilli retired the side with two strikeouts on eight pitches. 

The win puts the Pirates at 21-16, which means that they're back to the point they were after taking the first game from the Nationals last Friday. These three straight wins against the Mets wipe out that ugly little 1-4 skid that they went on after that game. 21-16 also keeps them within 2 1/2 games of the Cardinals (once they finish losing to the Rockies this afternoon) and a half game behind the Reds. Last year the Pirates used a pretty weak schedule in May and June to overcome a bad start and launch them into contention. This year they had a good start against a tough schedule, so it's quite nice to see them rack up some wins against a lesser team. The ice cold Brewers come into PNC Park next, followed by a visit from our old friends from Houston. It's time for the Bucs to heat up and rack up some wins. This series was a very good start. 

First pitch today is at 1:10. When you see the pink bats on the field, remember to call your mom. 

Tony Sanchez is also in New York in case Russell Martin has to go on the disabled list with his stiff neck. He's off to a good start in Triple-A this year (.269/.380/.449 in 25 games) and I still feel like he can be a serviceable big league catcher, despite all of his minor league struggles. It's not certain that he'll be activated this weekend, but at least this indicates that the Pirates think that he's ready to play at the big league level, if necessary. 

In any case, Liriano takes the mound today against Jon Niese and the Pirates need a win with Matt Harvey looming in the series finale on Sunday. Niese is not off to a particularly great start this year, with a 4.66 ERA and nearly as many walks (19) as strikeouts (20) in his 36 2/3 innings. With Liriano representing such a big question mark on the mound, it'd be nice to ding Niese for some runs. First pitch today is at 1:10.

The good news (if you want to call it that) is that the Pirates don't look like a lifeless husk of a team in losing these games. They're not playing a whole lot worse than they were when they were winning a lot of games, they're just doing enough wrong in a lot of places (the field some nights, the plate others, the dugout etc.) to rack some losses up. The only way to break out of this is mindlessly simple: play better baseball. 

Tonight is as good a night as any to start playing better baseball. Wandy Rodriguez is on the mound for the Pirates. Wandy didn't get a win in his last start on Sunday, but he pitched much better than he had in his two starts preceding that one. Let's hope that's the start of a good trend. Shaun Marcum, someone that seemed like a decent fit for the Pirates while the whole Francisco Liriano debacle was happening, is going for the Mets. He dealt with shoulder problems in camp and neck problems after that and in the games he has pitched he's been pretty bad. This is the sort of game that you'd like to see the Pirates win, based on pitching matchup alone. 

First pitch tonight is at 7:10.

Travis Sawchik from the Trib reported on Wednesday that James McDonald's shoulder has some inflammation but no structural damage. That's fairly good news. Hopefully his shoulder can recover with some time on the shelf and when he starts throwing again, he'll be able to nail down some more consistent mechanics with his arm closer to 100%. I don't see a timetable for his return anywhere, so it's hard to know what to make of this kind of news. We'll just have to wait and see how the Pirates handle his return/rehab. 

Jim Callis posted his first mock draft at Baseball America yesterday. He's got the Pirates taking UNC third baseman Colin Moran at #9 and Indiana State's LHP Sean Manea at #14. I've seen the Pirates linked to Moran all over the place, so guessing they like him at #9 seems like a safe bet at this point. Manea's a wild card since he's a Boras client that dominated last summer in the Cape Cod League but has dealt with some injuries and resulting questions since then. For most of Huntington's first years on the job it was pretty easy to predict who the Pirates would be taking since they were picking high and the teams that picked ahead of them did what they were expected to do. I feel like they're tougher to read when they're lower in the draft because they're generally not afraid of picking hard signs that drop (see: Mark Appel).

For his blog's one year anniversary, Dan Glickman asked a bunch of writers about their favorite MLB memories. There are some very cool stories from some pretty big name writers, so it's an honor to say that I'm included. I told the story about seeing the Rob Mackowiak double header in person. 

Finally, over at Bucs Dugout, David Manel examines reliever usage and leverage index. I have a feeling this is going to get talked about a lot in the next few months. 

In the early moments of Little Big League, young Billy Heywood is considering naming himself manager of the Twins and he gets grilled by the team's pitching coach about what to do in various baseball situations. At one point, the pitching coach asks Billy what to do late in a close game with a runner on first base for a hitter in the middle of the lineup. He thinks that the right answer is to bunt the runner over, but Billy points out that bunting the runner over will allow the other team to use intentional walks and pitching changes to take the bats out of the rest of the middle of his lineup, rendering the runner on second base moot. Billy Heywood is a fictional 12-year old in a movie from 1994. 

Tonight in the seventh inning, Jose Tabata lead off with a pinch-hit single. Starling Marte bunted Tabata over to second. Terry Collins brought in a lefty to face Travis Snider, so Snider got swapped out for Gaby Sanchez. Sanchez flew out, and Andrew McCutchen was intentionally walked. That left Garrett Jones to face the lefty, and he struck out to end the inning. That bunt after the leadoff single effectively took the bat away from the first four hitters in his lineup. It had the added effect of bringing Jordy Mercer to the plate in the ninth inning with the go-ahead run on base instead of Travis Snider. It happened so predictably that it was beyond maddening. 

That was followed with Not A LOOGY For Some Reason Tony Watson brought on to pitch the seventh inning of a 1-1 game with the three rigthies due up. He gave up a single to Andrew Brown, who scored on pinch hitter Ike Davis's double. 

I'm mentioning this because I'm sure that the only managerial decision that anyone will be talking about after this game is Hurdle using Melancon and Grilli in the eighth and ninth innings of a tie game ont he road and that not paying off after Grilli gave up an "infield single" on a groundball to Brandon Inge -- who was somehow still at second base in the ninth inning of a tie game -- that eventually resulted in the Mets scoring the winning run. Hurdle was adamant earlier this year about not using Melancon or Grilli in tie games, so he'll likely use this game as more evidence to support that method. Frankly, I think that using Grilli at that spot in the ninth inning was debateable, but only because Melancon cruised through the eighth on 12 pitches and he hardly ever throws any pitches and it was the bottom of the Mets' order that was up in the ninth. Really, though, the point is that the game was full of questionable managing and using Grilli and Melancon accounted for exactly none of it. 

I feel like whenever I point out bad managing in a loss, I also have to point out that the Pirate players played badly. The Pirates loaded the bases in the sixth inning with no outs, and managed a sac fly, a pop-out, and a groundout. There was the aforementioned bad defense by Inge in the ninth. There was also a pretty incredible play by Mets' centerfielder Juan Lagares on what looked like a sure-fire RBI double that was just CRUSHED off of Andrew McCutchen's bat in the top of the ninth. So yes: the Pirates had plenty of chances to win the game regardless of any decisions that were or were not made by the manager. And yes, I'm still angry about the seventh inning and I'm still mad that all anyone is going to talk about is how Grilli should be used.

So it goes. 

Jeff Locke starts tonight, coming off of a pretty lackluster start against the Nationals. I'm having a hard time pegging his performance this year. In his first two years in the big leagues, he got hit pretty hard all over the ballpark despite pretty sparkling strikeout/walk numbers. This year he's not missing as many bats (his K% is down from 23% last year to 13.4% this year) and he's occasionally struggling with control (BB% up from 7.4% to 11.3%). He's not getting an exceptional amount of groundballs or anything, either. Really, a bunch of his success is tied up in the .220 BABIP against him, which is obviously way too low. Still, he's capable of striking out more hitters than he has and his command shouldn't be as shaky as it's been, so one would think that even if his BABIP starts to regress back upwards he should be able to compensate for it by simply giving out fewer free passes and not allowing as many balls to be put in play. Like I said; I'm having trouble figuring him out. 

His mound opponent tonight is Dillon Gee. Gee has been bad this year with 19 strikeouts, 11 walks, and five homers allowed to match his 6.16 ERA in six starts and 30 2/3 innings. If Locke has another bad night, at least the Pirates should be able to compensate against Gee. 

First pitch tonight is at 7:10.

The good news for the Pirates is that the Mariners still somehow found a way to lose one of those four starts and that they're countering with AJ Burnett today. Burnett still leads the National League in strikeout rate and he's just one whiff behind Matt Harvey for the outright NL lead in total strikeouts. All of these strikeouts have lead to some short outings for him, but he was excellent against the Nationals last Friday, whiffing nine and holding the Nats to five hits and one run over seven innings. 

This should be a fun pitching matchup this afternoon, as the Pirates look for the two-game sweep of the Mariners before heading off to New York to face the Mets in a four-game set. The first pitch is at 12:35. The first strikeout will probably come at about 12:36, and there will be plenty of them to go around after that first one today.

Before anything else, it's worth pointing out that Jeanmar Gomez was quite excellent in his five shutout innings tonight. He only really got into trouble once (he walked Jason Bay after a Michael Saunders single with two outs in the third) and otherwise, he cruised. He struck out five, walked two, only gave up two hits, and got six groundouts to go with just one flyout. He had the Mariners off balance all night and was throwing what looked like a pretty heavy sinker, all with good command (41 strikes in 66 pitches). It's just the Mariners, sure, but a strong start is a strong start. With all the groundballs behind him, the middle infield had a nice game. Clint Barmes made a couple of strong starts and Jordy Mercer started a pretty 4-6-3 double play in the fourth.

Since the start came on short notice and Gomez has spent most of the season as a long reliever, he only threw those 66 pitches and left the rest to the bullpen. Justin Wilson, Mark Melancon, and Jason Grilli were all excellent while Tony Watson and Jose Contreras gave up the Mariners one run. Still, they were plenty good enough with the 2-0 lead that Gomez handed over to them. 

If there was anything to complain about, it was not scoring enough off of Aaron Harang. Things started nicely with a single and two doubles (in order: Starling Marte, Travis Snider, and Andrew McCutchen) in the first, but then dried up until Garrett Jones's two-run insurance homer in the eighth. Still, Andrew McCutchen had four hits and Travis Snider had a double and another hard-hit flyout. Four runs was more than plenty. 

I'd like to see the Pirates get a two-game sweep againsnt the Mariners here, but with King Felix on the mound tomorrow I'm awfully greatful for this win.

There's quite a bit of discussion online today whether or not McDonald is hurt or whether he's "hurt." David Todd makes the case that the Pirates are putting him on the shelf to sort out his bad mechanics. David's not wrong about McDonald's mechanics (check out this Baseball Prospectus piece, via @MichaelVelaTTU), but I think that there are a whole host of signs here that point to a real injury. His declining velocity is certainly one, even if it's ticked back up recently. The way that his slider use has declined this year worries me a lot, too, since it could be indicative of some kind of arm discomfort. The inconsistency with his velocity (he's been going up and down a bit since his mid-season collapse last year) and the changes in pitch selection and the lack of command and even the bad mechanics all say to me that there's something wrong with his arm. I would like very much to be wrong here, but I don't have a good feeling about this. 

In any case, Josh Harrison's up for now in McDonald's spot because the Pirates need a position player. Jose Tabata has some kind of lingering something and since Russell Martin's been scratched tonight with a stiff neck. The good news is that Travis Snider is in the starting lineup and batting second tonight and that Aaron Harang is starting for the Mariners tonight and not completely out of baseball, as I would've guessed three minutes ago before I looked up the Mariners' starter. Harang has already served up six home runs in 18 2/3 innings this year, which is a huge part of the reason that he's allowed 18 runs in those four starts. 

The first pitch tonight is at 7:05. The brutal early season schedule has passed and the Pirates are 17-14. Jeanmar Gomez or no, the schedule gets easier here and it's time to take advantage of that.

When the Pirates signed Brandon Inge this winter, the idea was that he'd essentially take Josh Harrison's role on the club; pinch-hitter, utility infielder, maybe spell Pedro Alvarez against tough lefties, etc. I wasn't particularly happy with the signing, but there are worse 25th men in the league than Brandon Inge and as it stands, getting upset over the 25th man on the roster is generally a futile thing to do. Brandon Inge came back from the disabled list on April 23rd. Here are some numbers.

The Pirates have played 12 games since April 23rd. Brandon Inge has appeared in all of them. He's made nine starts in those 12 games. Only one of those starts (his first) has been in his nominal role of third baseman. Six starts came at second base for Neil Walker while the Pirates were refusing to put Walker on the disabled list and call Jordy Mercer up for reasons that are completely unknown to anyone. The Pirates claimed that they thought Walker would be ready in a week, but the man had his hand slashed open badly enough to require stitches. The last two of those starts have come in right field for Travis Snider. Snider has been more or less unavailable with "tightness in his side" since April 26th. The only news I can find about Snider's injury is Snider saying that he's ready to play, which he's been saying since April 30th. He's started one game since April 30th, pinch hit once, and been double-switched in three other times. 

Of Inge's nine starts, five have come against right-handed pitching. Inge's career OPS against righties is .652. Last year his OPS against righties was .636. Total this year, Inge is hitting .294/.314/.353. That's about as empty and terrible as a .292 average gets. Inge's BABIP is .385, so he's not going to get any better. 

You can say that the only reason that Inge is playing is because of Walker and Snider's injuries, but honestly, unless someone says something concrete about Snider's injury, it seems like it's being milked for the single purpose of getting Inge more playing time. The same goes for Walker being left on the roster; he wasn't put on the DL because Inge was on the roster. So what happens when Snider finally does whatever he needs to do to be put back into the lineup on a regular basis? Inge will start taking at-bats from Pedro Alvarez.  

Brandon Inge is fine as a 25th man on the roster. Brandon Inge is thus far being used as the first man off of the bench, essentially as a starter that is someone that the team has to find playing time for even if he doesn't have a position. This seems like a minor point after 12 games, but it drives me nuts in the same way that severe misuse of the bullpen drives everyone nuts. Bunting and hit and runs and batting orders and baserunning and all of the small things that a manager gets blamed for are relatively small and unimportant in the grand scheme of a full season for a baseball team. So long as the team puts their best players on the field every night, most of those small things don't matter much. Brandon Inge is not one of the Pirates best players. When he's in the field at anywhere but third base, he's a defensive liability. When he's batting against right-handed pitching, he's an offensive liablity. Through 12 games, he's spent more time away from third base than at it and he's faced more right-handed pitching than left-handed pitching. This is a very bad trend. 

The rubber match of the series is this afternoon with Wandy Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez on the mound. Gonzalez has made six starts this year and two-thirds of them have seen him only last four or five innings. That includes two four-inning starts in his last three outings. He's also walked 11 hitters in his last three starts and after only giving up nine homers in 199 1/3 innings last year, he's served up four in 32 innings this year. He gets his strikeouts, but he's certainly not quite been himself this year and that should give the Pirates a chance. Of course, Rodriguez's last two starts have been pretty bad, too, with his last start being more or less an unmitigated disaster in Milwuakee. He'll need to be better than that for the Pirates to have a chance today. 

First pitch is at 1:35. 

Today, Jeff Locke takes his 13-inning shutout/two-strong start streak to the mound against Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg's numbers aren't quite Strasburgian thus far this year (he's 1-4 with a 3.13 ERA), but even in his last five (0-4, 3.86 ERA)  starts he's got 33 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings, which makes him a serious danger to the Pirates. He's walked quite a few hitters in those five starts, though (12 walks which is a rate of 3.9/9 innings) and he's given up three homers in that span, too. Drawing walks and homering are two things that the Pirate offense are pretty decent at, and I think that's probably the key to success against Strasburg today. 

First pitch is at 4:05. The Pirates need one win to take this series from the Nats, after which the Pirates get a breather from their previously brutal schedule. Take this series, then start to do some real damage against the Mariners and Mets and Cubs and Astros of the world. That's the plan. Believe it, Pittsburgh.

All of which is to say that I think you should keep an eye on the Pirates this weekend, even if you understandably want to watch some playoff hockey. As previously discussed, Jordy Mercer has been called up and Neil Walker is being put on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to the last time that he played (April 27th). It's awfully frustrating to have spent a week with a super-short bench, given Travis Snider's under-explained injury earlier in the week, only to have Walker end up on the disabled list anyway, but such is life, I suppose. Jose Contreras has also ended his rehab stint and joined the team, with Jared Hughes getting demoted to make room for him. Hughes has been somewhere between uneven and bad this year, so I'm happy to see Bryan Morris be allowed to stick around. I thought that Contreras's minor league deal this spring was just a novelty, but I'm not all that upset to see him on the roster. He was a pretty good reliever with the Phillies before needing Tommy John surgery in 2011, and he was absolutely dominant by almost all accounts on his rehab trip through the Pirates' system. Plus, coming back at 41 from Tommy John surgery is a great story. At the very least, the Pirates can give him a month in the 'pen to see how he looks, which will give Hughes time to straighten himself out or Vic Black a little more seasoning. 

Tonight, AJ Burnett takes the mound against Ross Detwiler. The first pitch is at 7:05.