PITTSBURGH (AP) — Now that he's finally won his first game as the Pittsburgh Pirates' manager, Jim Tracy would like to get his first victory in his new ballpark against his former team.

The Pirates return home from a 1-6 road trip — in which they didn't win their first game of the season until beating the Reds 5-3 on Sunday — to play the Los Angeles Dodgers in a sold-out home opener this afternoon.

"There's a lot of irony in that, isn't there?" Tracy said of facing the team he managed the last five seasons in his first game as Pittsburgh's manager in PNC Park.

Both teams will be coming off difficult opening weeks of the season when they play the first game of a four-game series, with the Dodgers' Odalis Perez (0-0) facing left-hander Zach Duke (0-0). Sunny skies with temperatures in the mid 60s are predicted.

Duke was the Pirates' top starter after his midseason callup from Triple-A in 2005, going 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA in his first 14 major league starts. He was knocked around most of spring training, but had a fairly effective outing against the Brewers on Wednesday, giving up two earned runs in five innings of a game the Pirates went on to lose 3-2.

Perez allowed seven runs in three innings of the Dodgers' 9-8 loss to the Braves on Wednesday as Los Angeles opened the season by allowing 24 runs in three games against Atlanta, winning only once. The Dodgers then took off on their first Eastern road trip and, predictably, ran into bad weather in Philadelphia and had to play a doubleheader Sunday. By the time they finish up in Pittsburgh on Monday, they will have played three games in a span of about 27Qw hours.

The Pirates dodged their first 0-7 start since they were 0-8 in 1955 by beating the Reds on Sunday, certainly not the kind of start they were hoping for with a new manager and coaching staff. They are coming off 13 consecutive losing seasons and, as a result of bad starts each of the last two seasons, haven't been above .500 since May 30, 2004.

General manager Dave Littlefield said such a bad week wouldn't have been so noticeable in July, but stands out because it came during the first week of the season.

"It wasn't the start you wanted," he said.

As a result, center fielder Chris Duffy said the Pirates felt an extra sense of urgency to avoid being swept in three games in Milwaukee and four in Cincinnati to open a season in which they expect to be much better than their 67-95 record of last season.

"It wasn't the usual Sunday game," Duffy said. "We wanted to come out with a win."

Tracy can only hope to be as successful in Pittsburgh with the Pirates as he was with the Dodgers, who won 15 of 18 at PNC Park under Tracy. The Dodgers were 8-1 there over the last three seasons.

Tracy felt he had the makings of a perennial contender after the Dodgers won the 2004 NL West championship. But a dismantling of the team had begun with a mystifying 2004 trade that sent away catcher Paul Lo Duca, and the team also failed to re-sign third baseman Adrian Beltre after his breakout season (.334, 48 homers, 121 RBIs).

With star closer Eric Gagne missing most of the 2005 season following elbow surgery, the Dodgers tumbled from a 93-69 record in 2004 to 71-91 — one of their worst records since relocating to Los Angeles in 1958. After the season ended, the Dodgers allowed Tracy to leave and fired general manager Paul DePodesta.

"It was very disappointing," Tracy said.