The Pirates (4-2) will face the Colorado Rockies (3-1) today at 1:35 PM for the first of a four game series. The Bucs kick off the season home opener today. Left-hander Paul Maholm will face right-hander Esmil Rogers.

• Maholm will be making his second start of the season. He’s coming off a great start where he pitched a shutout over 6.2 innings, limiting the Chicago Cubs to just five hits. Maholm walked two and struck out three but picked up a no-decision.
• Rogers will be making his first start of the season after winning the 5^th spot in the rotation. Rogers appeared in 28 games (eight starts) and last year with the Rockies where he posted a 6.13 ERA.
• Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle will be facing his former team, the Colorado Rockies, in the home opener. Hurdle spent 2002-09 as the Rockies Manager before getting fired during the 2009 season. He went 534-625 and led the Rockies to their first and only World Series appearance in 2007.

Hurdle was replaced by Jim Tracy, who managed the Pirates from 2005-07.

Hurdle told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com, “It drips with irony. I’ll leave all that up to [the media]. It’s perfect. Matter of fact, it’s a layup. The irony of [Jim] Tracy managing over there and I’m managing over here. I haven’t given it any more thought than that. You can’t write this stuff up by yourself. Life takes care of things and sports takes care of things.”

• Reliever Evan Meek pitched a 1-2-3 8^th inning during Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Meek was coming off back-to-back bad outings. It was reported that he was under the weather, but Meek did not use that as an excuse. He wanted the ball back to prove himself.

Meek told Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune, “(I wanted the ball) really badly, actually. It was one of those things where I knew I wasn’t far off. You don’t want to sit on it, you don’t want to wait, and that’s one of the good things about being a reliever is you get thrown back out there. I love that (manager Clint Hurdle) put me back out there with a two-run lead, I love that he has the confidence in me and that was big for me. Now I can build off that, take that into my next outing and just get on with it.”

• Happy Birthday to PNC Park, who turns 10-year-old on Saturday, April 9^th. Re-live some of the memories from the stadium (read more here).
• President Frank Coonelly hosted a web chat with fans on Wednesday afternoon (you can read the entire transcript here).

1. The Pirates currently lead the league in strikeouts. The pitching is picking up the slack and keeping games rather close. I know it still early in the season, but is this of any concern?

Coonelly: “The pitching, particularly the starting pitching, has been strong to date. On the high strikeout totals, yes, that is a concern for Clint [Hurdle] and his staff, and Clint has addressed the issue with the players. Giving the opponent free passes and making outs without putting the ball in play are both issues that we have prioritized”

1. Will Pedro move to first base?

 Coonelly: “After not taking charge on two infield popups on Opening Day, Pedro’s defense at third base has been solid-to-spectacular at times. It has been very encouraging — even on nights when he has struggled at the plate, he has not taken that to his defense. Again, last night Pedro made several solid plays at third. The best answer to the question has been provided by Pedro himself, as I’m sure you have seen. Pedro is committed to doing what in necessary for him to remain at third base. He has, as we have said many times, all of the tools necessary to remain at third base given his commitment and his tools. A move to first base is hardly inevitable.”

Pirates:

Rockies:

Dexter Fowler CF, Ryan Spilborghs RF, Carlos Gonzalez LF, Troy Tulowitzki SS, Lopez 2B, Todd Helton 1B, Ty Wigginton 3B, Chris Iannetta C, Esmil Rogers