THE BULLPEN

     One, two, three strikes, you're out! Your Pittsburgh Pirates finish out their homestand this afternoon with the finale versus the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. These are your keys for today's game. 1)With last night's 12-inning, 3-2, loss, the Bucs have dropped 2 straight to the Cubs. They are now 4 games in back of St Louie for the top spot in the NL Central and the Cubs have closed the gap to 3 games for the top Wild Card. Right the ship, find the win column and raise the Jolly Roger! 2)Mrs. Black-N-Gold has good news and bad news. During the Pirates 2-game skid, they've only allowed 5 runs. The problem is, they've only scored 3. Let me break this down for you, nice and easy: Hit, Run, & Score! 3)The Cubs start RH Kyle Hendricks, 7-6, 4.08 ERA. The Pirates counter with RH Charlie Morton, 9-7, 4.02 ERA. They have very similar records, don't they? The Bucs usually let ham-and-eggers walk all over them. Charlie needs to resort back to his Ground Chuck ways today. Time to make like a banana and split! Let's Go Bucs!!!!!