Jordan Lyles v Antonio Senzatela, Lineup & Notes

Game: It’s getaway day at PNC Park with a 12:35 first pitch. The game will be carried by AT&T SportsNet and 93. 7 The Fan. The weather may be iffy, no surprise that.

Lineup: Adam Frazier 2B, Starling Marte CF, Gregory Polanco RF, Josh Bell 1B, Melky Cabrera LF, Colin Moran 3B, Eli Diaz C, Kevin Newman SS, Jordan Lyles P. Melky for Bryan Reynolds is the only change from yesterday; guess Cervy is still sore from Tuesday. Good thing Eli’s young, catching a day-after-night game is a task.

Pitchers: RHP Jordan Lyles (4-1/1.97) closes the series against RHP Antonio Senzatela (3-3/4.89). Whatever evaluators saw Lyles in their crystal ball during the offseason deserve a huge raise; he’s been the ace so far this year. Jordan faced off against the Rox five times last year, once as a starter, and put up a 1-0/1.32 line in 13-2/3 IP, giving up five hits and fanning 15. The Buca are once again counting on Jordan to be their stopper. The 22-year-old Senzatela isn’t a big K guy with so-so peripherals, but he does a good job of keepin’ the Rox in games when he takes the bump. Senzatela has seen the Bucs once; he tossed an inning in relief against them last year with a walk and a whiff.

Notes:

• Last night’s attendance was the Pirates sixth crowd of fewer than 10,000 this season. They had seven sub-10k crowds last season. (s/o Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic)
• Injuries are still in the same ol’ rut – Keone Kela may or may not be close, Lonnie Chisenhall still has calf tightness and is away from Indy, and the rest of the gang is pretty much treading water, although JHK and Corey Dickerson are on the road to a rehab assignment, perhaps next week. And the bench may be even a little shorter today; it’s still TBD if Cervy will be available off the bench.
• A tale of an unlikely pair of buds – the Pirate Parrot and the Philly Phanatic, via Julia Hatmaker of Penn Live.