Nick Tepesch makes his Dodger debut in first game against the Pirates

PITTSBURGH---  Manager Dave Roberts knew starting pitcher Nick Tepesch had made 39 big league starts prior to tonight but did not know much more about the former Texas Ranger.

"I don't know a whole lot about Nick," Roberts said, "I know he's a big guy, he performed well here in Triple-A since we got him."

When asked why Tepesch now instead of other possible pitchers, Roberts said, "I think he was one of the few options we had right now as far as giving us a chance for length and he's performed, so it made sense."

The Pirates don't have much experience against Tepesch as they have only 33 total plate appearances against him as a team. David Freese, who is not starting, was 4-for-13. There are three Pirates in their starting lineup who have faced Tepesch:  John Jaso, has had the most success against Tepesch, he is 3-for-8 with two doubles and a home run; Matt Joyce and Sean Rodriguez each have one single against Tepesch.

The Pirates send out 24-year old Jameson Taillon will making his fourth career major league start and all four have been against 2015 playoff teams, the Mets, Cubs and now, Dodgers. Taillon missed the last two seasons due to recovery from Tommy John surgery and then last July, he had surgery to repair an inguinal hernia.

Injury Updates

Hyun-jin Ryu came out good out his start at Oklahoma City on Thursday and will pitch again in four days.  "Velocity got up to 90, gave up a couple of homers, felt good coming out of it, Roberts said, "the command obviously needs to be cleaned up and get better, for us, it is how he comes out of it, how he feels."

Brandon McCarthy is also on track to pitch again on when his turn comes up again next week.  Roberts said similar to Ryu, McCarthy has had good velocity and that he came out of his last start well.

Dave Roberts added this about pitcher Frankie Montas' latest injury news,  "I know we are going to do some more testing to see if surgery is needed. I don't know his return."  Roberts said that at the time of this injury, the Dodgers were building up Montas to be a starter for the Dodgers.

Roberts said left-handed pitcher Alex Wood is playing catch at about 90 to 120 feet, nothing off the mound, Wood is back in Los Angeles.

Dodgers at PNC Park

PNC Park opened in 2001 and for the first eight years of its existence, the Dodgers enjoyed coming here.  Their record was 23-7 through the 2008 season.

However, since then, the Dodgers are 10-14 and they have gone 2-7 in the last three seasons, which coincides with the Pirates resurgence.

The Dodgers are 18-18 on the road this season but they have played better offensively on the road than at home.