Sunday: Bucs Close Out Against Mets, Williams v Tyler Pill, Lineup (Amore In, El Coffee Out), Notes

Today: It’s another national broadcast today when the Bucs and Mets close out their set. The game will be on Fox Sunday regionally and 93.7 The Fan.

Lineup: Adam Frazier LF, Josh Harrison 2B, John Jaso RF, David Freese 3B, Josh Bell 1B,  Cucth CF, Jordy Mercer SS, Fran Cervelli C & Trevor Williams P.  Not a typical Sunday/getaway lineup; JJ is the only irregular in the lineup. We’re not sure why Gregory is off unless it’s one of Clint’s oddly scheduled rest days; it seems a little askew with tomorrow being an off day. And Cervy’s back, so his Sudafed must have kicked in.

Pitchers: Trevor Williams (2-3, 5.20 ERA) ends the Big Apple visit against Tyler Pill (0-1, 3.00). Trevor is making his sixth start of the campaign and has been getting sharper as he goes along to help keep the ship from taking on too much water in Jamo’s absence. His last outing was a six-inning no-decision against Arizona in which he gave up one run on four hits. This will be his first match against the Metropolitans. Pill just came off a 5-1/3 IP, one-run outing against the Brewers, stranding seven in his first MLB start. He’s a pitch-to-contact guy who changes speed and mixes up his offerings. Pill doesn’t have much of a big league track record to go on, but he does seem to burn through pitches and had some walk issues in the minors. The Bucs have seen him once, briefly, when he went 2/3 of an inning against them last week, giving up a run on a knock, walk and bopped batter.

Notes:

• It was eight years ago today that Cutch made his MLB debut against the Mets and Mike Pelfrey. Since that time, Andrew ranks first among all NL players in hits (1,348), extra base hits (497) and total bases (2254), and fourth in RBI (662). Currently, he has a nine-game on-base streak (his hit streak ended at eight games last night when he walked twice).

• Jordy Mercer has gone 22-for-50 (.440) with five doubles, a triple, three home runs, seven RBI and nine multi-hit outings in his last 12 games.
• J-Hay has taken to the #2 spot like a duck to water. He’s put up a .356/.416/.511 slash in 22 games from the two-hole this year.
• Gregory’s hitting streak ended at 10 last night. It was tied for the longest Pirates run of the season along with J-Hay’s late May 10-gamer.
• BTW, here’s one bit of old school lore that still holds true for the Pirates: when putting the ball in play while ahead in the count, the Bucs have batted .304; when behind in the count, just .177 per Baseball Reference. More old school: the three spot is by tradition reserved for the most productive run creators on the club. The Pirate slash from that position is .188/.256/.318 with 22 runs scored and 22 runs driven home in 56 games.
• The Pirates longest winning streak has been three games; they did that three times in April and haven’t repeated since then.
• Mets 1B Lucas Duda is 9-for-20 with four home runs and seven RBIs in five games against the Pirates so far this season.