Open Thread: Game 153- Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh (65-87) vs. LA Dodgers (79-73) 7:10pm

Lineups:

Pittsburgh

Chris Duffy CF .247/.311/.327
Jack Wilson SS .276/.317/.373
Freddy S?nchez 2B .346/.381/.479
Jason Bay LF .285/.392/.539
Xavier Nady RF .307/.369/.436
Ryan Doumit 1B .213/.319/.410
Ronny Paulino C .318/.371/.403
Jos? Bautista 3B .241/.341/.431
Shane Youman P .333/.333/.333

LA Dodgers

Rafael Furcal SS .299/.366/.451
Kenny Lofton CF .299/.359/.394
Olmedo S?enz 1B .286/.348/.543
Jeff Kent 2B .289/.377/.483
J.D. Drew RF .277/.385/.479
Russell Martin C .285/.357/.439
Marlon Anderson LF .274/.331/.423
Julio Lugo 3B .224/.293/.272
Chad Billingsley P .091/.200/.091

Pitching Matchup:

Shane Youman	vs	Chad Billingsley
0	W	5
1	L	4
4.32	ERA	3.32
8.1	IP	81.1
2.22	K/9	5.99
5.56	BB/9	5.77
0	HR/9	0.78

Youman is a 26 year old rookie who recieved no accolades in the Pirates system. The Dodgers should score a bunch of runs tonight, but, well, you know...

One of the more puzzling things about this month is why Grady has decided to drop J.D. Drew in the lineup, even those he's hitting better than anyone not named Furcal. At least Olmedo's in the three slot against a lefty, but Nomar's been giving away outs from that slot all month.

Philadelphia isn't playing tonight, so outcomes are as follows:

Best case: Dodgers take 1/2 game lead in the NL West and a 1/2 game lead in the wild card.

Wort case: Dodgers fall 1.5 back of San Diego, .5 back of Philadelphia and I start posting the tragic number instead of the magic number.

The magic/tragic number over Philadelphia is 11.