THE BULLPEN

Hey batter, batter, batter! Your Pittsburgh Pirates close out their regular season home schedule this afternoon against Cincy. These are your keys to today's game. 1)The Pirates give the ball to LH Jeff Locke, 10-6, 3.27 ERA. Locke has had success against Cincy. In 4 career starts, the lefty is 2-0 with a 1.19 ERA. Put Cincy on Locke down! 2)Cincy goes with RH Bronson Arroyo, 13-11, 3.56 ERA. In the former Pirates last 4 starts, Arroyo is 0-2 with a 4.56 ERA. We want to serve up a home cooked meal of Meatloaf and taters today and take 2 outta 3 from Cincy. Give him a heaping helping of Hit, Run, & Score! 3)In his last 4 against the Bucs, Arroyo is 0-3 with a 6.14 ERA. What better way to close out the season at home than to beat Cincy till they're Red. Hit him early, hit him often, hit him HARD! Woop, woop, woop! Standings Alert! St Louie won yesterday so the Pirates are still in 2nd place in the NL Central, 2 games back. With last night's 4-2 defeat of Cincy, the Red ones fall to 3 games out. The Gnats were postponed and will play a twinbill today. They're 4.5 out in the wild card. The Pirates magic number for the playoffs is 3 with 7 games to go. Give the home crowd something to cheer about today and keep your eyes on the prize! Let's Go Bucs!!!!!