It seems like besides the two series against the Nats and Rockies, we’ve been playing just bad enough to lose two out of three games to pretty much everyone we play. This dates back to the eight-game losing streak of about a month ago, which was puncuated with a sweep at the hands of the Mets.
Of course, it’s that very same Mets team that’s rolling in to PNC tonight, so this is a nice test of which Pirates (the .500 in April Pirates, the dismal eight-game losing streak Pirates, or the somewhere in between team that we’ve seen since then) are closest to the real Pirates. Livian Hernandez gets the start for the Mets, and if we lose three of four games to Brian Moehler, Mike Hampton, and Hernandez, I’m going to be pretty disheartened.
Ian Snell starts for the Pirates, and I’m sure that whatever happens on the mound tonight won’t be his fault. He might get lit up by the Mets, but it’ll only be because the umpire squeezed him or because the catcher (Robinzon Diaz is noticeably not catching tonight) called a bad game, or possibly because he didn’t make a proper offering to Zeus prior to the start of the game. Ian Snell doesn’t pitch poorly; other people cause his ERA to rise for him. But yeah, if he throws a good game, that’ll totally be all him. I mean, look at all the obstacles he has to overcome to pitch well.
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