For once I have nothing bad to say about Bud Selig's Blackout Zone: the Pirates and Nationals play on FOX today at 4:15 and on 364 days a year I find it annoying to live in what's been insanely classified as Nationals Territory here in North Carolina, but today that means that I'll get to see the Pirate game. The Pirates kicked off this short homestand in strong fashion last night, riding a great start from AJ Burnett and homers from Andrew McCutchen and Jordy Mercer to a 3-1 win. 

Today, Jeff Locke takes his 13-inning shutout/two-strong start streak to the mound against Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg's numbers aren't quite Strasburgian thus far this year (he's 1-4 with a 3.13 ERA), but even in his last five (0-4, 3.86 ERA)  starts he's got 33 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings, which makes him a serious danger to the Pirates. He's walked quite a few hitters in those five starts, though (12 walks which is a rate of 3.9/9 innings) and he's given up three homers in that span, too. Drawing walks and homering are two things that the Pirate offense are pretty decent at, and I think that's probably the key to success against Strasburg today. 

First pitch is at 4:05. The Pirates need one win to take this series from the Nats, after which the Pirates get a breather from their previously brutal schedule. Take this series, then start to do some real damage against the Mariners and Mets and Cubs and Astros of the world. That's the plan. Believe it, Pittsburgh.

Most of Pittsburgh will have its eyes on the Consol Energy Center tonight. That's fair, of course; the Penguins are an awesome team, and nights that Sidney Crosby takes the ice should be celebrated. That being said, I do want to point out that there's a really exciting series happening at PNC Park this weekend. Weird and frustrating trip to Miller Park aside, the Pirates have played good baseball early this season and now they're hosting one of the more exciting young teams in baseball -- along with many people's pre-season NL favorites -- in the Washington Nationals. People have noticed, too; tonight's game is the MLB.tv free game of the night and tomorrow's game is a national broadcast on FOX. 

All of which is to say that I think you should keep an eye on the Pirates this weekend, even if you understandably want to watch some playoff hockey. As previously discussed, Jordy Mercer has been called up and Neil Walker is being put on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to the last time that he played (April 27th). It's awfully frustrating to have spent a week with a super-short bench, given Travis Snider's under-explained injury earlier in the week, only to have Walker end up on the disabled list anyway, but such is life, I suppose. Jose Contreras has also ended his rehab stint and joined the team, with Jared Hughes getting demoted to make room for him. Hughes has been somewhere between uneven and bad this year, so I'm happy to see Bryan Morris be allowed to stick around. I thought that Contreras's minor league deal this spring was just a novelty, but I'm not all that upset to see him on the roster. He was a pretty good reliever with the Phillies before needing Tommy John surgery in 2011, and he was absolutely dominant by almost all accounts on his rehab trip through the Pirates' system. Plus, coming back at 41 from Tommy John surgery is a great story. At the very least, the Pirates can give him a month in the 'pen to see how he looks, which will give Hughes time to straighten himself out or Vic Black a little more seasoning. 

Tonight, AJ Burnett takes the mound against Ross Detwiler. The first pitch is at 7:05.

Within about twenty minutes this afternoon, Charlie posted over at Bucs Dugout about how Jordy Mercer really deserves a shot with the Pirates this year, then 93.7's Dan Zangrilli tweeted this: 

Hearing from sources that Jordy Mercer will likely be brought up from AAA... #Pirates @937thefan

— Dan Zangrilli (@DanZangrilli) May 3, 2013

Charlie's exactly right about Mercer and John McDonald, of course. McDonald is basically a luxury piece that lets you pinch hit for Clint Barmes and still get a reasonable replacement for his defense, but he creates a bit of a conundrum in that his very existence on the bench limits the number of viable pinch hitters that are available. Barmes has been wonderful defensively at shortstop these past two years, but he's only getting worse at the plate and that really says something. He's also a free agent at the end of the season and Mercer is the only person that even resembles a viable internal option. It's time to get Jordy Mercer some at-bats as a pinch hitter and maybe a once-or-twice-a-week shorstop. There's really nothing to lose at this point. 

There's no word on the corresponding move yet. I'd assume that either McDonald will be given his walking papers or Neil Walker will be actually going on the disabled list after hogging up a roster spot for the last week.

This game looked like it was going to be a disaster. Jeanmar Gomez struggled through the first inning with some awful defense behind him, but somehow escaped with only a 1-0 deficit. Pedro Alvarez erased that quickly with one swing of his bat, but then Gomez served up back-to-back homers to Carlos Gomez and Yuniesky Betancourt (the second time in this series they've gone back to back, I think) and things looked bleak again. Mike McKenry cut into that lead with a solo homer of his own, but then the Brewers put a fourth run on the board against Justin Wilson in the seventh and were threatening for more when Bryan Morris came in and got Ryan Braun to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

Still, the Pirates were down 4-2 and needed another rally. That happened pretty quickly in the top of the eighth with a Travis Snider single, Starling Marte's second homer in as many games, and RBI singles from Brandon Inge and Pedro Alvarez (this was greatly aided by Rickie Weeks booting Inge's bloop single into left field, allowing pinch runner James McDonald to score easily from second and advancing Inge all the way to third). That all gave the Pirates a 6-4 lead in the eighth inning and that's been as good as gold for the Pirates thus far in 2013; Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli shut down the Brewers in the eighth and ninth to let the Pirates escape Milwaukee with a win and a 6-4 record on this ten-game road trip. 

It's easy to overstate the importance of any game on May 1st, but given how ugly the beginning of this series was this is certainly a pretty gratifying win. Ten days ago, we were wondering if the Pirates' great homestand was going to translate into a good road trip. Six wins later and it was certainly a good trip, even if those first two days in Milwaukee didn't go well. Getting a solid comeback win after yet another subpar start let's the Pirates go into the off-day and this weekend's series with the Nationals in a pretty good place. 

Long story short: the lock at my apartment got jammed shut last night and no one answered the emergency maintenance number, so I couldn't get into my apartment and as a result didn't see much of last night's game besides Rickie Weeks's homer that sealed the deal for Milwaukee. There were home runs, bad pitching, the Pirates lost at Miller Park. Frankly, I've heard that story before and don't really care to read the details of how it happened again. 

Today, Jeanmar Gomez gets his first start in a Pirate uniform. I don't understand why Francisco Liriano's being kept in Triple-A and Jeanmar Gomez is being given starts for the Pirates, but here we are. Travis Snider still isn't in the starting lineup for reasons that haven't been explained all that well as far as I can tell (something about discomfort in his side was mentioned a few days ago, but that's it), so that means that the Pirates will again start Jose Tabata and Brandon Inge against a righty. John McDonald's being thrown in for good measure. 

With this lineup on the field and Jeanmar Gomez pitching, all I want is for today's loss to be as painless as possible and for the Pirates to get the hell out of Milwaukee. Hiram Burgos starts for the Brewers. First pitch today is at 1:10. 

If there ever was a day that the Pirates needed James McDonald to be "Good J-Mac," this day certainly qualifies. They played terribly last night in their least favorite place in the universe, but today is a new day. Jonathan Sanchez's Pirate Rein of Terror is over, as he's been designated for assignment to make room for Bryan Morris in the bullpen. McDonald, of course, is capable of literally anything when he's on the mound. Maybe he'll give the Pirates the strong seven inning start that they need after an ugly loss. Maybe he'll force the team to use a long reliever for the second straight day. Who knows? Not even McDonald! 

Marco Estrada goes for the Brewers. Travis Snider and Neil Walker remain out of the lineup, which means Gaby Sanchez and Brandon Inge both continue to start against right-handed pitching and the bench will once again be gnats' eyelash thin. The first pitch tonight is at 8:10.

Mike Newman at FanGraphs today has a great look at Stetson Allie's return to prominence as a hitter with the West Virginia Power this year. After his two-homer night last night, Allie's tied for the Sally League lead in homers with eight and his season line is a ridiculous .351/.409/.660 in 110 plate appearances. There's quite a bit of conversation with both Allie and Kyle Stark on the transition and where Allie goes from here and it's all a very interesting read if you, like me, have no idea how to rate Allie as a prospect now that he's a 23 year old slugger in the Sally League that was a pitcher a couple of years ago. 

I seriously have no concept of what to do with Allie in any way right now. It's hard to tell what to make of this huge power surge, it's hard to tell if the Pirates deserve credit for moving him off of the mound so quickly or blame for drafting him in the first place when it seems clear from this article that he had no intention of being a starting pitcher, it's hard to tell what his ceiling is and where he goes from here since he's had such a weird prospect journey to this point. This is a weird and awfully unique situation given how quickly the Pirates moved him into the field and how quickly he's finding success there. Obviously we need to see more than 110 plate appearances in Single-A ball before knowing what to really make of Allie, but it's clear that Newman thinks that he could become a legitimate corner infield prospect. Reading that from someone with an outside perspective is definitely encouraging. 

I want to say that nothing went right in this game, but that's not true in the strictest sense. The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and then nothing went right from there. Wandy Rodriguez couldn't find the strike zone in the first inning and when he had a chance to get out of the inning with the Pirates still only down 2-1, Clint Barmes booted a double play ball and by the time the inning finally ended, it was 5-1 Brewers. 

Given the way the Pirates have scored runs lately, that didn't necessarily seem like the worst thing in the world. Rodriguez seemed to settle down and the Pirates got a second run and then Yovani Gallardo and Norichika Aoki hit back-to-back homers and pretty soon Jonathan Sanchez was in the game and that was that. 

Let's try again tomorrow.

The Pirates are probably the hottest team in baseball right now, rolling to 14 wins in their last 19 games against mostly good teams and first place in the NL Central. No matter how well they're playing, though, a trip to Miller Park is a terrifying thing for the Pirates. Last year the Pirates won two games at Miller Park. In 2011, they won one. In 2010, they won two. They didn't win any games there in 2008 or 2009. In that whole span, the Pirates have only won one series at Miller Park, and that was in 2010. 

If the Pirates are going to turn things around for real this year, winning some games in Milwaukee would be a really good place to start. Tonight Wandy Rodriguez starts against Yovani Gallardo. Gallardo's off to a pretty rough start this year with a 4.97 ERA and an alarmingly low 5.3 K/9 in his first five starts. Everything has to start somewhere, I suppose. 

First pitch tonight is at 8:10