Today at 1:10 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Pirates (49-45) and Cincinnati Reds (50-44) take the field at Great American Ball Park for the rubber match of their three-game set live from Cincinnati. The game can be live streamed for free here. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the action on KDKA 93.7 while Cincinnati fans can do the same on WLW 700.
Pittsburgh closes out a seven-game set it is currently 2-4 on while Cincinnati finishes up an 11-game homestand it is 7-3 on entering Sunday. The Reds took the opening game of this series 6-5 on Friday while the Pirates evened things up on Saturday with a 6-5 win of their own.
Pittsburgh enters play in fourth place in the National League Central, a game behind their adversary and 2.5 games behind the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers while Cincinnati is in third place, 1.5 games behind Milwaukee.
Francisco Liriano (1-6, 4.60 ERA) returns from injury to toe the rubber for the Pirates while the Reds counter with Johnny Cueto, who is 9-6 with a 2.03 ERA.
The Reds, Pirates, Cardinals and Brewers are all in a tight race as the first half of the season comes to a close, and Cincinnati manager Bryan Price believes that these teams will be in stiff competition all through the second half.
"I don't think there's any reason to think that it would be any different," Price said per MLB.com. "The main reason is that all four of the teams that are knocking each other around are teams that have very good starting pitching."
The Pirates hope that the returning Liriano will add to their pitching depth as he mans the mound for the first time since June 10 due to a strained left oblique. Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle is happy to have Liriano back in the rotation.
"Yeah, excited for him. He's excited," Hurdle told MLB.com about Liriano's return. "I haven't seen such a big a smile on his face in quite some time. More about the fact he actually feels really healthy."
Cincinnati will look for Cueto to give the Pirates fits this afternoon. Cueto, whose ERA ranks third in the NL and 134 strikeouts rank second, likely won't be able to pitch in Tuesday's All-Star Game since he is pitching in the first-half finale.
Reds third baseman Todd Frazier has a team-best .291 batting average and ranks tied for fourth in the NL with 18 homers while adding a team-high 51 RBI and rookie outfielder Billy Hamilton is second in the NL in steals (38) and tied for third in triples (six).
Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen is first in the NL with 114 hits, 201 total bases and 58 walks. McCutchen also ranks second in on-base percentage (.422), slugging percentage (.573), OPS (.994) and RBI (61, tied) while his .325 batting average ranks third in the NL and his 28 doubles tie him for third.
The Pirates and Reds close out their three-game set when they take the field this afternoon live from the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
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