Pittsburgh (63-87) vs. LA Dodgers (79-71) 7:10pm

Lineups:

Pittsburgh

Chris Duffy CF .249/.315/.332
Jack Wilson SS .273/.315/.372
Freddy S?nchez 3B .341/.377/.473
Jason Bay LF .284/.392/.540
Xavier Nady 1B .303/.365/.413
Ronny Paulino C .321/.372/.407
Jos? Bautista RF .238/.340/.416
Jos? Castillo 2B .259/.306/.396
Ian Snell P .060/.096/.080

LA Dodgers

Rafael Furcal SS .297/.364/.439
Kenny Lofton CF .302/.363/.399
Nomar Garciaparra 1B .305/.371/.507
Jeff Kent 2B .288/.375/.485
J.D. Drew RF .276/.385/.474
Russell Martin C .286/.355/.442
Marlon Anderson LF .274/.331/.423
Wilson Betemit 3B .246/.301/.458
Hong-Chih Kuo P .000/.000/.000

Pitching Matchup:

Ian Snell	vs	Hong-Chih Kuo
13	W	1
10	L	4
4.78	ERA	4.25
175.0	IP	42.1
8.18	K/9	10.48
3.5	BB/9	6.2
1.44	HR/9	0.43

Much as been made of the fact that the Pirates are over .500 since the All Star Break. As Charlie from Bucs Dugout points out, there's not much difference between the team in the first and second halves, it's just that their winning all of their one run games instead of losing them. Good time for the Dodgers to break off a little run.

Arizona and San Diego are about to get underway, while the Phillies have just defeated the Cubs. Best case scenario is that the Padres drop 1.5 back and the Phillies remain two back, while the worst case scenario sees the Padres retaking first place by half a game, and the Phillies sit just one game away.

The magic number over the Phillies is 11.