THE BULLPEN

Hit the ball and touch 'em all! Your first-place Pittsburgh Pirates continue their series against the San Diego Friars tonight at PNC Park. These are your keys to tonight's game. 1)The Pads are 23-10 at PNC Park and have won 17 of the last 20 there. They are 69-80 overall. The Pirates home record this season is 48-27, 87-63 on the season. There's no reason the Pirates should let the Pads one-hit them in their house. Nothing beats home cooking so cook up some Hit, Run, & Score! 2)The Pirates start LH Jeff Locke, 10-5, 3.14 ERA. In Locke's last start, the lefty allowed 1 run on 3 hits in a 3-1 win over the Scrubs. Locke up a win tonight! 3)The San Diegans start LH Eric Stults, 8-13 with a 4.03 ERA. Stults hasn't won since the All-Star break, going winless in 10 straight starts. 11 would be heaven! Woop, woop, woop! Standings Alert: The Pirates remain in a tie for first in the NL Central as St Louie lost, too. Meanwhile, look in the rearview mirror. What is that red blur I see? Why it's Cincy and they've gained ground with last night's victory. Cincy is now 2.5 games back. We have a HUGE series coming up with them this weekend to close out the final homestand and we finish up the season in Cincy. Make it a non-issue by taking out the Pads first. Don't look ahead. As I've said before, you have to beat the good teams and beat up the bad teams. San Diego is a bad team. Smack 'em around! Let's Go Bucs!!!!!

P.S. Happy Roberto Clemente Day! Go out and win one for the Great One!