Willy v Spencer Turnbull, Lineup & Notes

Game: The contest starts at 6:40 and will be aired by AT&T SportsNet & 93.7 The Fan. The Bucs and Pucks season has ended with the Penguin’s loss last night.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Starling Marte CF, Colin Moran 1B, Josh Bell DH, Melky Carbrera RF, Fran Cervelli C, Jung Ho Kang 3B, Jason Martin LF, Erik Gonzalez SS (Trevor Williams P). Kinda interesting, sticking Colin at first (he does have a handful of games there) and DH’ing J-Bell. We thought Cervy or Fraze might get a blow, but they will wait until tomorrow to curl up.

Pitchers: RHP Trevor Williams (1-0/2.45) closes the two-gamer against RHP Spencer Turnbull (0-2/4.80). Willy hasn’t been Superman but he’s been pretty dang good for the Bucs in his three starts, going six in all three matches. He’s tamed the Tigers twice, once in 2017 and again in ’18, shutting them out over 13 IP. Turnbull has 19 whiffs in 15 IP, but so far in his young career hasn’t performed up to his peripherals – has has a 5.46 ERA in six lifetime starts but a 3.19 FIP, so it’s to be seen if that normalizes or trends. This is his first outing against Pittsburgh.

Notes:

• The Pirates have four guys who have appeared in every game (Fraze, J-Bell, Cervy, Melky) and 10 who have played in 13 or more of the first 15 games. Four pitchers have tossed in seven or more games – Ric Rod (9), Keone Kela (8), Nick Burdi (8) and The Nightmare (7), tho Vazquez is the only one of the quartet to average an inning or more per outing. Their next four blocs of games includes three stretches of 10-14 straight contests, which makes dividing the workload a little more challenging.
• The Bucs are off again after tonight and then open a seven-game stand on Friday at PNC v the Giants and D-Backs.