THE BULLPEN

     Root, root, root for the home team! Our Pittsburgh Pirates return home to the friendly confines (?) of PNC Park tonight when they open a 3-game series versus the Milwaukee Brewers. These are your keys for tonight's game. 1)There's no place like home? They went 1-5 on their last home stand and swept the Brewers in 4 games in Milwaukee last week, then the Bucs limped home following a 3-game sweep in Chicago. It should be good for our favorite Black-N-Gold team to return to the comforts of home on the North Shore. Love that home cooking! 2)Don't look now but the Mets jumped over the Pirates and are 2 games out of the wild card. The Pirates are 2.5 back and the Marlins are just 3 back. The Buccos need to get back in the win column and follow-up on last week's thumping of Milwaukee and bruise the Brew Crew. You gotta win to get in! 3)RH Junior Guerra, 7-3, 2.93 ERA, is expected to come off the DL and start for Milwaukee tonight. The Buccos go with RH Jameson Taillon, 3-3, 3.39 ERA. Jamo was very un-Taillon-like in his last start, lasting just 3 innings and giving up 5 runs on 7 hits with 2 home runs, 3 strikeouts and 2 walks, in what turned out to be a 9-6 Pirates win over the Brewers. Give the kid a hand, will ya? Brew up some Hit, Run & Score! Let's Go Bucs!!!!!