Friday: Mitch Keller Goes Against Cody Poteet; Bru Back, Will Gone

Today’s Game: The game starts at 7:05 and will be carried by AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. It’s a free tee Friday night giveaway, and the weather dudes call for a good weekend for final three games of the series.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B; Ke’Bryan Hayes 3B; Bryan Reynolds CF; Gregory Polanco RF; Jake Stallings C; Ka’ai Tom LF; Erik Gonzalez 1B; Kevin Newman SS; Mitch Keller P. Gregory Polanco is 3-for-34 w/RISP (he has more sac flies than hits, 4-3) is batting cleanup. E-Gon is a stop-gap at first until Colin Moran, who homered during his Indy rehab game yesterday, is back on the roster.

Pitchers: RHP Mitch Keller (3-6/6.54) takes on RHP Cody Poteet (2-1/2.95). Mitch has continued his good-bad MO; tonight the Bucs are hoping he can break the habit and toss well in b-2-b outings. Kells has seen the Fish once, back in 2019 (1-2/3 IP, 3 K). Poteet, 26, has come along, adding some ticks to his heater and showing a much improved change. He does have a reverse split that favors righties (and by a lot – .265 RH/.114 LH opp BA). He’s never faced Pittsburgh, and this is just his fifth MLB start, so he’s still a work in progress.

Notes:

• The Pirates have activated RHP JT Brubaker (bereavement/Covid) and DFA’ed 1B Will Craig.
• Miami pitcher Elieser Hernandaz’s injury last night was a quad strain, the severity of which hasn’t yet been determined.
  
• MLB Trade Rumors Steve Adams picked MLB’s likeliest 40 trade candidates, and the Bucs had 5-6-7 with LHP Tyler Anderson, 2B Adam Frazier & RHP Richard Rodriguez. C Jake Stallings was also mentioned towards the back end of the list.
  

Tomorrow’s Game: The game starts at 4:05 and will be aired by AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. The day’s handout is a free tote bag compliments of MLB Network.