To begin with, a quick apology: sorry there was no preview today, Wednesdays are my busy days on campus, and I found myself barely with enough time to make the 7 PM bus, much less get a preview post written.
Secondly: AJ Burnett and Francisco Liriano have combined to give up six runs 25 total innings of work thus far in 2015, and the Pirates are 0-4 in their starts. There’s simply no way that’s going to continue much longer. Both pitchers look really sharp; Burnett’s control is good and Liriano’s velocity is good. If those two keep pitching like this, the Pirates are going to win more often than not with them on the mound.
All of this out of the way, the offense has been absolutely miserable the last two games. Neither Shane Greene nor Alfredo Simon really fooled them much; Greene struck out three Pirates in eight innings last night and Simon struck out two in eight tonight. This game was particularly frustrating because the Pirates saw Simon a lot last year and had a decent amount of success against him. They drew a ton of walks off of him last year (12 in 25 innings), which was part of the reason for that success. Tonight? Zero walks in eight innings.
All in all, it’s really just not a whole lot of fun to beat Anibal Sanchez on Monday, then lose to Shane Greene and Alfredo Simon on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Pirates are 3-6, and their first homestand of 2015 could be going better at this point.
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