The story hasn 't changed of late, Jeff Locke continued the strong streak of Pirates ' pitching in a 3-2 win over the White Sox yesterday; Gerrit Cole will look to do the same tonight against Jeff Samardzija and the White Sox. Last night, the Pirate bats exploded in the first inning by putting up three runs in a hurry, but that 's all they could muster throughout the night. If Locke and the Pirates ' bullpen wouldn 't have been so good, the Pirates -- more than likely -- would 've added a tally to the loss column. In an attempt to generate more offense tonight, the Pirates will have to go through veteran right-hander Jeff Samardzija. Samardzija is no stranger to the Pirates, as he has plenty of history against them. He played seven seasons in the NL …show more content…
Also, this will snap a four-game stretch in which the Pirates had to face a left-handed starter. That means that we can see the likes of Pedro Alvarez and Gregory Polanco inserted back into the lineup, and surprisingly, Corey Hart will get another start. This could be Hart 's last chance to prove himself to the Pirates organization, as he 's 0-8 in June with six strikeouts; he 's hitting .170 on the year. More on the lineup: Jung Ho Kang will be back in the four-hole again tonight -- last night he hit a two-run homer in that big first inning, which helped the Pirates defeat the White Sox. Samardzija will have a tough time trying to get the White Sox a win against the Bucs tonight, as he 'll have to face the MLB leader in wins (10) and NL leader in ERA (1.71) Gerrit Cole. Cole has never faced the White Sox, but he has faced some current White Sox players when they were on different teams; they 've only assembled a .125 average off him. As the first player in the MLB to win 10 games, Cole will be looking to be the first to capture an 11th win. The game should be a tight one tonight, with two quality pitchers on the hill. The first pitch of the game is expected to be delivered at 8:10 p.m. ET by