Tuesday: Bucs/LA Middle Game; Nova v Julio Urias, Lineup, Notes

Tonight: The Bucs return to the scene of last night’s crime, Dodger Stadium, for a 10:10 start. Hopefully, the bats will have arrived from Pittsburgh by game time tonight. The contest will be aired on Root Sports and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Josh Harrison 3B, Jordy Mercer SS, Cutch CF, Gregory Polanco RF, Jose Osuna 1B, Fran Cervelli C, Chris Bostick LF, Gift Ngoepe 2B and Ivan Nova. Another Magic 8 Ball lineup and yes, a different guy at second. El Coffee is flopping outfield corners with Chris Bostick as Clint has decided to make Polanco the everyday RF’er again.

Pitchers: Ivan Nova (3-3, 2.14) takes on Julio Urias (0-0, 0.84) as Bossa Nova tries to get the Bucs back on track after the team’s terrible day at the office. His last start was Nova’s worst of the year, and that was giving up four runs in six innings. This is Ivan’s second career outing against LA. He faced them here last year in August and won 5-1. Urias is the next big thing as far as Dodger pitching prospects go. The lefty – hey, another one – sports a miniscule ERA, but a 1.500 WHIP shows he isn’t dominating quite yet. The youngster is on a loose leash, with a six inning/80 pitch soft limit as the Big Blue bring him along slowly. Julio shut out the Bucs last year in a 2-2/3 IP relief outing, but this will be his first start against the Pirates.

Notes:

• Despite last night’s beat down, Pittsburgh has won 10 of the past 14 games at Dodger Stadium.
• Fraze went 1-for-3 in his rehab game last night at Indy with a double, walk, run scored and RBI. He was off today; the Indians followed last night’s match with a bad-weather day game this afternoon.

• It’s easy to forget how young this team is –  current Pirate rookies are John Bormann, Chris Bostick, Dovydas Neverauskas, Gift Ngoepe, Danny Ortiz and Jose Osuna; in 2016 they were Josh Bell, Wilfredo Boscan, Steven Brault, Adam Frazier, Tyler Glasnow, Alen Hanson, Chad Kuhl, Kelvin Marte, Max Moroff, Jacob Stallings, Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams. Johnny Barbato is in his second year while Elias Diaz and Felipe Rivero are in their third season, so half the roster has three or fewer big-league years under their belts.
• If the left coast games interfere with your get-up time, you might want to head to PNC Park tomorrow night to sate your baseball jones. Penn State and WVU baseball meet, with the gates open at 6 PM for a 7 o’clock first pitch. Tickets are $10 or less depending on your status.