Pirates Open Important Series With Reds Tonight

May 30, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Russell Martin (55) hits a game winning single against the Detroit Tigers during the eleventh inning at PNC Park. The Pittsburgh Pirates won 1-0 in eleven innings. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Pirates will open a three game series with the Reds tonight at PNC Park, after dropping game one of a four game set with the Tigers and then storming back to take the next three, two of them coming as 1-0 victories in eleven innings.

The Reds are coming in with a record of 33-21 this season, while the Pirates are 34-20. Although the Reds have the third best record in baseball, they’ve struggled against teams with a winning record this season, going 8-15 to this point in the year.

Johnny Cueto will get the start for the Reds, in his career against the Pirates he’s posted a 12-4 record, with an ERA of 2.52, and a WHIP of 1.064. Wandy Rodriguez will start for the Pirates, looking to run his winning streak to five games. He hasn’t had great success against the Reds during the course of his career, posting a record of 8-11, with an ERA of 4.33, and a WHIP of 1.343.

The Reds need Cueto to go fairly deep in this game, after Homer Bailey only went only 3 2/3 innings in his start yesterday. If the Pirates can get to Cueto and do so early, they’ll set themselves in great position for the remaining two games of the series.

The opening game of this series will be the 1,000th game played at PNC Park. The first game ever played at PNC Park was also against the Reds, on April 9th, 2001.

The Pirates lineup for tonight’s 7:05 start looks like this:

Let’s go Bucs!

Schedule