Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call – Prepping for Cincinnati

In our daily Pittsburgh Pirates Wake-Up Call, one of our writers gives his or her thoughts on all things Pirates, whether it be the game from the day before, off-the-field news, or anything at all going on in the world of the Pirates.

Yesterday was the second off day of the Pirates season so far. Typically teams across baseball have an off day following Opening Day or their first game, but this was the second off day for the Pirates in the first four days of the season. Starting tonight, the Pirates play 26 games in 27 days, with the only off day in that span on April 18th. Hopefully the team is rested up moving forward.

So the Pirates begin a series in Cincinnati this weekend starting tonight at 7:05 PM. Honestly, there’s no reason the Pirates shouldn’t take two out of three from the Reds. The Reds come in with an identical 3-0 record to the Pirates, but that record is inflated as they opened against the Phillies, a team that should lose over 100 games this year. The Reds are also projected to near that 100 loss mark and be one of the worst teams in baseball this season. They’re clearly in rebuilding mode.

The Pirates also open the series with Francisco Liriano on Friday, who didn’t allow a run and tossed ten strikeouts on Opening Day. Then Gerrit Cole makes his first start of the season on Saturday, and those two should be good for two wins against an aging, rebuilding Reds team. Jeff Locke then makes his debut on Sunday. A sweep of the Reds would be nice, but a 5-1 record to start the year should be expected and would also be nice.

Looking back, I think a lot of us are wondering whether the Pirates-Cardinals series says more about the Pirates or the Cardinals as a team. It probably speaks to both teams in some ways, but I think it speaks more overall about the Pirates. For one, the Cardinals have a better pitching staff than the Pirates (at least on paper), and the Pirates were able to top four runs in each game against them. The Cardinals could also only muster more than one run in one of the three games, and their lineup didn’t seem too dangerous. When guys like Randal Grichuk, Stephen Piscotty, Tommy Pham, and Jedd Gyorko are starters, you have a lot to prove.

If you didn’t, make sure to check out our post from yesterday and why Gerrit Cole has historically struggled when pitching in Cincinnati.

As always, we leave you guys with some links to stories and news bits from around the web. Enjoy!

• With their loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday night, the Padres set a Major League record for most consecutive innings without scoring a run to open a season with 27, surpassing the 1934 Cardinals who went 26 innings in such fashion. Oh, and the Dodgers were one inning away from the Major League record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched to start a season, as their streak ended at 31 innings.
• The Marlins lost their top prospect (according to Jonathan Mayo) Tyler Kolek to Tommy John surgery on Wednesday. Kolek was the number two overall pick in the 2014 draft. I’m sure the Pirates can sympathize with the Marlins.
• The Blue Jays are finally working on a new dirt infield, which should be ready to go before the team’s series with the Red Sox this weekend. The story shows the old infield (all turf except for the area around the bases) and the new infield (an actual, normal, all-dirt infield). About time I say.

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