The Pittsburgh Pirates (26-26), just four games out of first place in the NL Central, take the field Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee looking for a victory and series win over a Brewers club that has dominated Pittsburgh lately in Wisconsin. Milwaukee has won 37 of their past 41 games at home against Pittsburgh.
The Pirates will be without a key bat on Sunday. Rob Biertempfel, the Pirates beat writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, tweeted earlier that Clint Hurdle has benched Pedro Alvarez for Sunday's game, and possibly more.
Here is the full Pittsburgh lineup, via the team's official twitter feed:
Today's lineup in Milwaukee: Tabata 7 Walker 4 McCutchen 8Jones 9 Hague 3 McGehee 5 Barajas 2 Barmes 6 McDonald 1
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 3, 2012
The good news for the Pirates is that the Brewers will be without both Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez on Sunday. Here is the Milwaukee lineup today, via @BrewerNation:
Today's #Brewers lineup: LF Aoki, CF Morgan, RF Hart, 3B Green, 2B Weeks, SS Ransom, 1B Conrad, C Maldonado, P Fiers
— The Brewer Nation (@BrewerNation) June 3, 2012
For more on the Pittsburgh Pirates, check out Bucs Dugout, SB Nation's Pirates blog. For more on the Brewers, there's Brew Crew Ball. For news and updates from the Pirates series against Milwaukee, stay tuned to this StoryStream from SB Nation Pittsburgh.