Covering: Cubs 9, Pirates 8

Pirates Lineup:
1. Josh Harrison (R) 3B
2. Neil Walker (S) 2B
3. Andrew McCutchen (R) CF
4. Corey Hart (R) 1B
5. Starling Marte (R) LF
6. Jung Ho Kang (R) SS
7. Francisco Cervelli (R) C
8. Sean Rodriguez (R) RF
9. Francisco Liriano (L) P

Thank you for posting the lineup JAL.

DK...thank you for the site. Need to change your starting pitching.

Don't like this Pirate line-up———that being said, there are probably no surprises in it.

How 'bout coming to the Majors and being stuck 9th in batting order behind pitcher? Way to show confidence, Joe!

I hope Liriano is on tonight. Don't want Cubbies starting to think they are good.

I feel a little shaky after last night's game. Foolish on my part——gonna lose 65 games at least this season.

Don't want Polanco being part of a platoon. His defense makes it worth his presence. Don't be fooled: I love Sean Rodriquez on the Pirates, but he is not a consistent batter/hitter. Put Paluka Polanco in right and let him fight off the lefty.

I'd rather see Sean Rodriquez at short subbing for Jordy, but must keep BMTIB happy by playing their prize project.

Just watched Dejan's Evgeni video.

How hurt can Malkin be if he keeps going all out in recent practices———instead of sitting practice out to "heal."

Liriano can't afford many mistakes tonight.

#freeyohe

Frankie playing with fire early...

Anybody think Polanco would have gotten to that ball in right?

JHAY-HAY-HAY!!!

Let's see if Frankie can go 7 tonight...give the bullpen a bit of a rest.

Marte Partay!!!

A rash prediction: Kang will get 1 or 2 hits, tonight, just not in his first at bat.

Hopefully Marte's streak will be catching by the rest....

Frankie not quite as sharp tonight.

Crappy defense once again....

Did they score that a hit???

Thank goodness for the stinking Brewers.

Joe West having a terrible evening. So inconsistent.

Frankie almost to 70 pitches already.

And cue a 1-2-3 response from the Buccos...

I love Starling. But enough with these bunt attempts. Please.

Ha!

Wow, Kang, nice pick off. Sheesh

Kang is Korean for "oops".

Nice inning for Frankie

Quick hook. Hmmm

That was AWFUL....do we even work on bunting anymore??

Cole pinch hitting?

I'm so old I remember when you had enough guys on the bench to use an actual position player to pinch hit. No, really.

Joe West always making friends wherever he goes

Did someone say "shaky bullpen."

Outside of Melancon, Hughes and Watson right now, our bullpen is a dumpster fire.

Not a good night for Huntington's "big" off season acquisitions.

Seems kinda late for the Cubs to schedule batting practice.

I can't wait until the team with the best outfield in the majors, that is going to beat the Mariners in the world series shows up from Bradenten. then we will really have something to watch! until then "just one game in april".....again and again....until may of course

Is it still too early to say that this team really isn't very good? Especially when 3, perhaps 4, of their pitchers in the pen are not major-league caliber players?

Now we know why Liz hasn't pitched in the bigs in a while.

Tonight is the Pirates answer to the Liz-Frank injury.

Once again very few hits for the Buccos tonight: only 4 and fortunate that two were dingers.

I wouldn't pinch hit here. I like to save hitters to bat for my pitchers.

Haven't seen many shifts from the Cubs, have you Pedro? Get used to it.

Get that fab up a little

I like Cervelli....

Schlitter is full, Biz.

So, Liz in line for the win after that stellar performance. Love those 2 out RBI's

Second-guessing the opponent: think maybe Joe pulled his starter a bit too soon?

Sure would be nice for the Polanco we were hyped up about would finally get here.

It wasn't that long ago that Rizzo was the only guy in this lineup that could hurt you. That's certainly no longer the case.

Soler > Polanco

Wow...unbelievable

Pedro and Hart are both out of the game. Not a good night for the manager either.

If only we could have a third baseman that fields and can throw to first... Come on J Hay

Never should have needed that play at the plate...JHAY not playing good defense the last few days....

Stunned West didn't use rule 7.13 there. I felt it could have gone either way.

Might as well just paint a target on him.

Again. 22 is beaned.

Really would have liked to have Hart or Pedro there instead of the unfortunate Lambo.

Tabata > Lambo... #wemissLBH

Time for #2, so to speak.

Wow!!

Lol. How do you say I'm sorry in Korean?!?

And Mr. Huntington exhales.

Kang!!!!!

Lambo and jung ho! We all knew it....ahhhh I love being proved a dummy

No lead is safe with this bullpen.

DK will spend the 8th looking for a Korean/Enlish dictionary.

This one is far from over, especially with Melancon being a ticking time bomb.

Who would have thought Kang would have Cutch's back???

Need to add on here.

The Brewers have lost 33 of their last 44 dating back to last year and are losing 11-5 to the Reds tonight. The Ron Roenicke watch is officially on.

There is a Korean-Enlish app for the iPhone,

Tick, tick, tick.

This bullpen is AWFUL!

With nobody getting loose in the pen. It's not the bottom of the 9th, we still get to bat. Get him out of there.

How can that idiot--Hurdle sit there and give this game away with loser Melancon??

Melancon just doesn't look the same this year.

And he's pitching that way too.

Melancon is done. Has no place in the pen. DFA.

DUMPSTER FIRE....

Greg Brown actually said that the Buccos figure Melancon will get his velocity back later in the season....

Hot steaming dumpster fire. sad and pathetic. just one game in April though

Cubs are the better team folks....

Bullpen allows 6 runs in 4 innings tonight after allowing 4 runs in 3 innings last night. That'll get it done.

Jason Grilli anyone??

1-7 against any team not named after beer makers

Hughes for closer!

Melancon is Grilli part deaux.

Gimme a base runner.

This was April last year if you all remember. Except it was Grilli in the starring role.

Rondon throwing 96 - maybe Bucs should get one of these as a closer

97 97 97 K

It's not that hard if you have the right guy closing

Good call on the bench Milo. Would have been nice to have Alvarez here.

Decisions need to be made here in a hurry. Something is wrong with Mark, We cannot afford to throw away these games.

No magic from our core players...

That's OK guys, the regular season doesn't matter. It's all about the playoffs.................oh, wait, isn't this the Penguins thread?

Buccos now 0-5 vs rest of division outside of Brewers.

Being a closer is like batman, you live long enough to become a villain. Mark just doesn't have it anymore or is hurt. Saw it happen to Grilli. Need to move him out of role or on DL to try and get right. Can't give away games like tonight

Holdzkom 7 Ks in 4.2 innings but no he couldn't help this team

Bullpen has been awful but the starters not being able to go deep in ball games has definitely not helped. This bullpen has been overused this month.

Defense was indefensible tonight. I love JHay but it sure is nice when your 3rd basemen is 6'5".

This is exactly what I feared from the Cubs. They look much better even earlier than I anticipated.

Clint showing he can be as stubborn as the best of them - never ceases to amaze me how even the best are so blind to the obvious at times

Very little offense for most of the season, now sloppy defense and a bad bullpen....not a winning formula.

Can't forget about the awesome offense either. The BA of the top 6 batters in tonight's lineup: .212; .240; .222; 231; 208; 176. That won't win you many games.

The difference between winning the division and the wild card are games like this.

The difference between winning the division and the wild card are games like this.

DK asking the tough questions to CH about Melancon...

It's amazing how similar Melancons 2013 and 2014 numbers are. Games, IP, etc.

It's not an increased workload thing as far as I can tell. Stumped.

Meanwhile tonight the Bengals are beating the Packers 14-10...either that or it's softball beer night.

Bucs have a closer who doesn't have swing and miss stuff. No question his cutter and set up fast ball are gone. That is why you don't pay millions to any one of these guys. Waiting for the elbow test later this week. Guys loose velocity it is always an arm/shoulder issue. Time for big John

Well we don't have very many games left against the Brewers, so if we don't figure out how to win 1 or 2 run games pretty quick (or beat someone OTHER than the Brewers) won't have to worry about the WC or the division much at all.

You can't lose games like this at home to a division opponent. I don't care if its April and theres still 140 plus games to play - these types of losses come back to haunt you. Papelbon is out there but we won't spend the money with his contract.

Let's go bucks get em tomorrow

You need to understand that these games are just as important in April as they are in September. The last time I looked Papelbon was throwing at 94 - 96 MPH compared to Melancons 84 - 87. You dont think that makes a difference !!!!!!!