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Jacobs hopes to continue surge vs. Pirates

Apr 6, 2008 - 1:29 PM Pittsburgh (2-3) at Florida (3-2) 1:10 pm EDT

MIAMI (Ticker) - The arrival of the Pittsburgh Pirates has revived the bat of Mike Jacobs.

Jacobs and his Florida Marlins eye a sweep of the Pirates when the teams meet in the finale of a three-game set on Sunday.

Jacobs, who went 1-for-11 with four strikeouts in Florida's season-opening series against the New York Mets, has been much better in this set, going 4-for-9 with two homers, five RBI and four runs scored through two games.

His walk-off homer on Friday gave the Marlins a 5-4 win and his first career grand slam snapped a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning as Florida prevailed, 7-3, on Saturday.

The Marlins will turn to Rick VandenHurk (0-0, 9.00 ERA) in an effort to complete their first sweep of the Pirates since 2002. The righthander gave up three runs in three innings, but was not involved in the decision against the New York Mets on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh will counter with Ian Snell (0-0, 6.00 ERA), who surrendered four runs over six innings against the Atlanta Braves on Monday.

The righthander has yet to defeat the Marlins in two career starts, going 0-1 with a 12.27 ERA.