The Pirates take their crazy streak of shutout innings and incredible on the road tonight to continue their home-and-home with the White Sox. The Pirates’ last road trip went quite well, with a 7-3 run through San Diego, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Jeff Locke starts for the Bucs tonight and his last start against the Phillies was quite good — he threw six shutout innings, striking out two, walking one, and scattering six hits. I suspect it’s the walks that’s the most important to Jeff Locke’s success there, and that’s what’s worth watching tonight.
John Danks starts for the White Sox — the fourth straight lefty the Pirates have seen. That means Andrew McCutchen as DH, Starling Marte in center, Corey Hart at first, Sean Rodriguez in left, Josh Harrison at second, and Jung Ho Kang at third. One would assume that Hart has limited time to get his act together at this point, and that games like this are his chance to do so. Danks should give him that chance; he’s been awful this year and really pretty much every year since 2011.
First pitch tonight is at 8:10.
Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
