The Pittsburgh Pirates (79-76) are facing the Chicago Cubs (91-65) in a four-game series at Wrigley Field this week. In game two tonight (which will be a delayed start due to rain), the Pirates are sending Chris Archer to the mound to go up against lefty Mike Montgomery, who has a 3.74 ERA in 117.2 innings, with 82 strikeouts and a 1.33 WHIP. He has faced the Pirates twice this season as a starter and once as a reliever. The relief appearances was three runs over two innings, while the starts were 5.2 shutout innings and one run over six frames.
** The Pirates/Marlins game from early September that was rescheduled for October 1st, has been canceled. The game was only “scheduled” in case the Pirates made a run at the playoffs, but they were recently eliminated, so the game in no longer necessary. They never sold tickets or listed a time for the game, so that was the first clue that it was only an “if necessary” game.
MLB made the decision on the game, which probably cost Ivan Nova some money:
I imagine that Ivan Nova is hoping that the Pirates play the Marlins on Monday in the meaningless makeup game with no listed time or ticket sales available. It would be his day to start and his 30th start, which would earn him $750,000 in bonus incentives
— John Dreker (@JohnDreker) September 24, 2018
Here are the lineups:
Good Guys
Here's our lineup for tonight, presented by Honda. #LetsGoBucs
bad guys
Here is tonight's #Cubs lineup.
Game preview: https://t.co/TPpEhJKc3x pic.twitter.com/1qj5thUvg2
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 25, 2018
UPDATE: New start time in 9 PM EST
