Pirates, Lincoln Try For New Streak Against Indians

Brad Lincoln heads to the bump today for the Pirates as they look to take the series from the Cleveland Indians at PNC Park.   Lincoln has thrown twelve innings of work for the Pirates and seems to still be looking for his changeup.  He has walked five and struck out five.  In his last start, Lincoln failed to impress.

The Indians will have Justin Masterson with his 5.02ERA on the mound.  He is also looking for a better start today.  He gave up a season high seven runs on ten hits in the Tribe’s 7-6 loss to the Mets on Tuesday.  The defense gave up three costly errors behind him.

So it might be more important to look at his prior start against the Red Sox for a better gauge.  The right hander fired a two-hitter in leading the team to an 11-0 boat race.  It was his first career shutout.  The fact it came against his former team was even better.

Gulp.  So Lincoln will have his work cut out for him to get his first career victory and two in a row for the Pirates

HOT:

Andrew McCutchen is 10-for-his last 20 with eight runs scored.

Garrett Jones is 8-for-23 with six RBI.

Lastings Milledge is 7-for-his last 11.

NOT:

Opponents are batting .283 against Pirates pitching this season.

Despite being 2-for-4 against Masterson, Ronny Cedeno is still on the pine.  Here is some analysis from my favorite blog Pittsburgh Sports Tavern.

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The Plain Dealer took a look at the Indians front office young guns who are shooting blanks for new teams.  An interesting read with this quote:

"Commissioner Bud Selig likes to say that MLB’s playing field is leveling. In these two old baseball cities, it’s leveling off in the wrong direction regardless of who the general manager is."

An interesting comment on the message board too by jamesoncurry1:  ‘We are bad fans who dont deserve a championship, and all the crying on messageboards does nothing to dissprove that.’