Show Us Your Stuff Brad Lincoln

It’s rookie versus veteran tonight at PNC Park when the Chicago White Sox come to Pitsburgh for the first of a three game set.  Brad Lincoln makes his debut in front of the home crowd after pitching in DC last week.  He was credited for giving up five runs against the Nats thanks to the generous scorekeepers in our nations capital.

Freddy “Mr. Perfect” Garcia will pitch for the White Sox. He has made two starts against the Bucs and won both of them with a 3.75ERA. The veteran is going for his seventh win in his last eight starts. His ERA sits at 4.82 and his WHIP sits at 1.36.  He allows 3.0BB/9 and strikes out 5.4 batters per nine innings.  

Lincoln spoke in terms of what the fans can expect:

"“I hope that I can impress,” said Lincoln, who hasn’t been to Pittsburgh since signing in 2006. “Hopefully they expect a lot. They should expect me to go out there and perform to the max and give them a show. For me, I’m going to treat it just like any other game and go out there, do what I do and hope to come out with a win. It will be exciting.”"

Lincoln mentioned he will be excited to show the home crowd what they have to look forward to in the upcoming years.   Now that’s what I am talking about.   The Pirates certainly need someone, like Neil Walker, who has some

attitude.  Some confidence.  A guy who wants to compete and win.  Maybe gets a little pissed off once in a while.

A win tonight would get me off the bridge that I climbed upon after Sunday’s loss put the losing streak at eight games.

HOT:

Garrett Jones hit a solo homer, his fourth this month, and knocked in two runs in the loss Sunday.

Joel Hanrahan has a strikeout in 14 of his last 15 appearances.

The Sox have won five of their last seven games.

Garcia is 3-0 with an ERA of 3.00 in his past three starts.

Coming off a loss the White Sox are 8-2.

NOT:

Sox hitters were nearly no hit against Ted Lilly and the Cubs in a 1-0 loss on Sunday.  But Juan Pierre broke it up in the ninth inning with a leadoff single.  That was the only hit the Sox had on the day.  However, the Sox have scored 40 runs in the past seven games.

The Pirates have scored 18 runs in their past seven games.

The Pirates are 3-7 on Tuesday.

The Bucs are 2-8 after losing a game.

The Pirates are 1-5 against the White Sox the past two years.