Pirates’ lineup for tonight’s opener of the Cards series:

• Polanco RF
• Walker 2B
• McCutchen CF
• Marte LF
• Alvarez 1B
• Harrison 3B
• Cervelli C
• Mercer SS
• Liriano P

One thing that might jump out is the absence of Jung Ho Kang, considerably hotter [7-for-17] than the guys who play his positions, Josh Harrison [1-for-30] and Jordy Mercer [4-for-22].

Manager Clint Hurdle sounded conflicted in his rationale. Hurdle is extremely loyal, but is also pragmatic.

On Kang: “I like to play the hot hand.”

On Harrison/Mercer: “I also want to make sure we’re tied to guys we’ve been tied to.” …

More Hurdle on Kang: “He’s in a very good place. We’ll get him back in the lineup. We’re trying to grow him, to play more and handle more. Two weeks ago, he was the stress ball. ‘Why isn’t he in Triple-A?’ Now he’s not playing enough. We’re trying to figure it out. We’ll get back to you.” … 

A.J. Burnett ended a nine-pitch at-bat Thursday night by sending a drive to the warning track in left center., falling a few feet shy of a  major farewell-season wish: His first home run since July 24, 2005, when he went yard on Kevin Correia, then with the Giants.

Burnett felt he was of the wrong age. “Ten years ago, maybe that goes out.”

Hurdle thinks he was just in the wrong place: “He hit a home run in any other park but this one.” … 

I asked Hurdle about the disparity between his Bucs’ record against the Cardinals here (15-7 since early April 2013) and there (15-3). Seemed like a legit question, but all Hurdle would say is, “I’ve got nothing there. I just killed your question.” … 

RIP, Question.

To Clint Hurdle — and to his players, who take after him  — no one game is bigger than the other 161. Especially not on May Day.

But make no mistake — if the Pirates’ intent to unseat St. Louis as NL Central Division  champs is to be taken seriously, they need to show up against the Cardinals this weekend.

It doesn’t matter whether or not they agree with perceiving this as a “message” series — another concept the Bucs reject. Whatever you want to call it, that is what it is. … 

Hurdle on the Cards’ fast start: “They’ve pitched their backsides off, starting and relief.” …

Only 10 Pirates remain from the squad that faced the Cardinals in the 2013 NL Division Series. That’s a 60 percent turnover in 17 months. … 

The incumbents: McCutchen, Alvarez, Harrison, Marte, Walker, Mercer, Cole, Melancon, Watson and tonight’s pitcher, Burnett. … 

The threat of fines apparently was enough for players to “step on it.” Actual fines not needed: Original plans were for MLB to start assessing fines today for violations of new pace-of-play rules, but the Bucs have not received official alerts of that, confirming MLBPA head Tony Clark’s view that a fine schedule may be waved off as unnecessary.

Why? Through April, game times are down an average of nearly nine minutes off the ’14 pace. Scared Fast?

“The initiatives have made a tangible difference,” Hurdle said. “Players are engaged in this; you’ll see them catching themselves stepping out, and they’ll step right back in.” … 

If you thought the Pirates’ Z-for-Zoltan “rallying cry” was odd, consider the new way they dot big hits, the … what is that thing anyway?

“It’s whatever you want it to be. Call it whatever you like,” said a coyly smiling Josh Harrison, credited with first using the gesture teammates have begin to mimic.

How should I describe it? You fully extend one arm, and keep the other bent over it, as if … firing an arrow? Surfing? Trying to hypnotize someone? You’re Moe, looking for Curly’s chin?

“The Zoltan is gone. That’s old. It was time to try something new,” said Andrew McCutchen, who also could not, or would not, define the motion.

By any name, it is a sign of solidarity. Maybe those things work best if you’re the only ones who know what it means. 

Missed in the wake of Francisco Liriano’s Sunday gem in Phoenix: It was his first win in the month of April for the Pirates; in fact, his first in the month since 2011, with the Twins. … 

Is there any good news in Adam Wainwright’s season-ending injury? Actually, yes — it is to his Achilles and not to his right arm, which thus gets an extended rest after making the second-most pitches [10,222] since the start of the 2012 season among NL hurlers. Only Cole Hamels has made more. … 

You have to feel for Andrew Lambo, who has hit into a lot of hard outs. At the end of the day, though, he is still 1-for-22, and the Bucs still need more than an .045-hitting fourth outfielder. …

On a possibly related note, switch-hitting Steve Lombardozzi is batting .390, with an on-base percentage of .455, in Indianapolis, where the infield veteran has spent more time getting comfortable in the outfield. … 

Why couldn’t Jared Hughes throw out Yasmany Tomas, who took off from first base Friday night while the Pittsburgh reliever still had the ball in his glove? Hughes calmly stepped off the rubber and turned to second, but “I had a slider grip on the ball and had to readjust my fingers, and by then I threw too late.” … 

A.J. Burnett takes the mound tonight as the third-worst supported pitcher in the bigs. The Bucs have given him a total of four runs in his first three starts, and only Tim Hudson and Phil Hughes have received less. …

Clint Hurdle and Jeff Banister are obvious soul mates, and Hurdle enjoyed a close relationship with Josh Hamilton while serving as the Texas Rangers’ batting coach in 2010. However, Banister apparently didn’t chat up Hurdle before the Rangers swung a deal with the Angels to bring Hamilton back to Arlington. … 

Two former Pirates managers are calling the shots today. Lloyd McClendon will do his daily thing with the Mariners, and John Russell is running the Orioles with Buck Showalter absent to attend a relative’s memorial services. … 

The Bucs are taking another crack at their first four-game April winning streak since 2008. …

Maybe because it was in the same house (but not under the same roof, Chase Field’s retractable being open Friday night). But Gerrit Cole’s gem against the D-backs reminded me of a seminal pitching effort of a few years ago.

I watched a studly right-hander, pitching for Arizona, pour strike after unhittable strike over the plate and thought, “This guy might have a chance.” His name? Max Scherzer.

Cole displayed the same command. He worked through 108 pitches, but did not throw his 23rd ball until the eighth inning. Most remarkable, in my eyes, was how effortless he made it look. You wouldn’t think he was throwing near 100 mph if the radar reading wasn’t there to tell you.

That natural deception must throw off hitters, too. …

Andrew McCutchen alert: He went hitless for a third straight start — overall 0-for-12 — and that usually serves him as a launching pad for a hot streak. McCutchen doesn’t have too many lulls like this, but he followed up three instances of 0-for-10s last season by going a collective 43-for-114 (.377).

After three consecutive hitless games in May, McCutchen included 10 multi-hit games in his next 15, hitting .410 (25-for-61) over that span. …

Now you know why his beard is growing: After Andrew Lambo hit another vicious liner into another out, teammates continued to keep sharp objects away from him. … 

Clint Hurdle’s honest, candid evaluation of Jung Ho Kang: “Right now, he isn’t better than Harrison. He isn’t better than Mercer. He isn’t better than Walker. But we believe he will eventually be a very good Major League player.” … 

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In this forest of new statistics, one old tree that has become completely meaningless is the Earned Run Average. And not just for modern relievers, whose ERA — earned runs allowed every nine innings — represents weeks’ work.

But consider starters. They rarely pitch the complete game the ERA was originally designed to reflect. Six innings is the norm. So it isn’t the ERA that has become obsolete, but what it represents.

Solution: Turn the ERA into a six-inning stat. Very easy to calculate, as simply two-thirds of what we now consider an ERA.

If Gerrit Cole has a “virtual” ERA of 3.00, his factual ERA is 2.00. In an average start of six innings, he can be expected to allow two earned runs. 

Show of hands of support, please — and I’ll start referring to … let’s call it the 6-ERA … in my coverage. … 

Gregory Polanco is building a solid platform for a breakout season. The difference in his confidence/approach was vivid in Wednesday’s game-winning AB against the Cubs’ Phil Coke. Gets in an 0-2 hole, patiently lays off some tough pitches to run the count full, fouls off a couple of nasty pitchers’ pitches — then punches a single through the shortstop hole.

Relaxed, Polanco will start loosening his swing. The power always comes last. …

The Bucs are tied for the early NL lead in sacrifice flies, with 6. So? Last season, they were 14th (next to last) with a total of 35. … 

Seven decades after Hall of Fame shortstop Arky Vaughan, the Bucs have another Arky: Arquimedes Caminero in the box score, henceforth Arky Caminero for Buccos fans. …

It’s an AC thing: Before it was only Aroldis Chapman, but Arky Caminero has joined the NL Central’s Century Club, as in 100-mph heat.

Pitchers’ year? Maybe. But it sure wasn’t pitchers’ Tuesday. 163 runs! Topped by the Reds’ 16-10 win over the Brewers — who scored as many runs as in their previous six games combined, to no avail. …

Attn. Neal Huntington: Addison Russell went 0-for-5, with three strikeouts, in his Major League debut; he looked like a guy who has had a total of only 59 plate appearances in Triple-A. …

Clint Hurdle offers some leeway in the typical control demands placed on pitchers: “You try to put the ball … maybe not in a tee cup, but in a soup bowl.” … 

Mark Melancon has appeared in 151 games for the Pirates. Games in which he has allowed three runs: April 13 against Detroit; April 21 against the Cubs. …

It is misguided to blame his troubles on a drop in velocity. As long as it is not health related — and it does not appear to be — a drop from 91 to 88 is insignificant, because 91 isn’t overpowering to begin with. It really is a matter of ball movement/control. When his pitches are diving knee-to-ankle, Melancon gets a lot of chases and ground balls. But he hasn’t had his usual sink. …

Bryan Price apologized for the language he used, but stood by his message? I think he got it backward: In a real-world sense, didn’t mind the language, don’t have a problem with someone showing fire and emotion; but berate someone for doing well the job that serves the public? For Woodward and Bernstein’s case, come on! … 

Pedro Alvarez will never be Tony Gwynn in the batter’s box, but pitchers who still try to blow a fastball by him will have to be careful. Last season — admittedly not the most positive reference point — Alvarez missed 19.8 percent of the fastballs at which he swung. In the early going this season, that percentage is down to 3.6. …

The Bucs surrendered a season-high 14 hits in Monday night’s series opener with the Cubs, not to manager Clint Hurdle’s surprise.

“We probably missed more (pitch) locations in that one game than we had in a whole series before. And we paid for it,” Hurdle said. …

The (work-in-progress) results are in — and Starling Marte owns the fourth-longest homer hit this season in the Majors. Marte’s 460-foot blow Friday night off Brewers reliever Jonathan Broxton was 51 inches shy of the leader in the clubhouse — the 477-foot shot jacked the same night by Alex Rodriguez in Tropicana Field off … wait for it … Ernesto Frieri. …

With Joe Maddon in town, it was timely to ask Hurdle whether he’d ever consider batting his pitcher eighth. The skipper admitted to having theories of why and when it makes sense — but basically hasn’t bought into them enough to actually do it. …

Maddon routinely lists his pitcher No. 8, even when he isn’t a hitter the calibre of Tuesday’s starter. Travis Wood even had two pinch-hit homers this Spring Training. Addison Russell thus is making his Major League debut as the ninth-place hitter — the first position player to bat ninth in his first big league game since right fielder Mark Little with the 1998 Cardinals, managed by the equally eccentric Tony La Russa. …

Not passing judgment on Bryan Price. But a good time to point out that in four years of covering Clint Hurdle, I have never heard him utter any profanity.

Neither have umpires. A couple of years ago, a lip-reading expert “transcribed” 20 on-field confrontations that led to ejections. The two involving Hurdle were the only ones that did not involve any profanity. Even when Hurdle gets mad, he remains civil. … 

Now I know why, when asked prior to Monday night’s game whether he shared others’ curiosity and looked forward to his first look at Kris Bryant, Hurdle offered only a curt, “Well, yeah …” …

Have to admit, was surprised when Jung Ho Kang, whose primary Korean billing was as a “great fastball hitter,” cited velocity as the biggest difference in Major League pitchers. In 13 at-bats, Kang has gotten the ball out of the infield three times — a soft single to center for his only hit, and two fly balls. … 

Club officials are still weighing Charlie Morton’s next step on his rehab from labrum surgery,  extended spring game or sim game. Whichever, his target will be 65 pitches. … 

The way their bullpen sets up, the Bucs like their chances in any  game when the starter gives them seven innings. That’s a daily target and, through 13 games, the rotation is in that neighborhood, averaging 6 1/3. … 

Baseball has its proverbial “bulletin material,” but “marquee stuff” apparently ranks even higher.

Clint Hurdle thinks baserunners have been challenging his outfielders because of all the hype accorded the Holy Trinity of Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen, Gregory Polanco.

“Put them on a marquee, somebody wants to take them down. When everybody writes them up, who wouldn’t?” Hurdle wondered before the Bucs took on the Cubs in the first of four at PNC Park.

Most glaring was Detroit’s Jose Iglesias running a routine single to center into a double last week, a “free 90” that “got everybody’s attention,” Hurdle said.

McCutchen simply didn’t hustle to that ground ball fast enough.

“He had some challenges with the (sore left) knee early in the week,” Hurdle acknowledged. “He has played through them and seems to have moved much better the last two games.” …

Jared Hughes is a different pitcher when he enters the game to get someone else out of trouble, or gets his own clean inning. With men on base, he throws the DP-making sinker. Otherwise, it’s the swing-and-miss slider on which he gets most of his strikeouts. …

Gerrit Cole rolled Sunday with Chris Stewart as his catcher. Even last season, Stewart (10) caught nearly as many of Cole’s games as did Russell Martin (11) and did it slightly better (3.41 ERA to 3.53).

Are they an item in the making?

“Aw … nah,” Hurdle said, with slight hesitation. “They do have some history. But it’s just the way they matched up, with a large number of day games falling to Cole, and Martin getting those off after the night game. Stew does have a very solid relationship with Gerrit. But both (he and Francisco Cervelli) can catch him well.” … 

A win tonight would give the Bucs their first April four-game winning streak since 2008.