The Pirates are, despite their pitching woes, playing relatively good baseball right now; they won five times in six games against the Diamondbacks and Rockies, and their 13-9 record is slowly climbing up the National League standings. They’re going to open May with two huge series against the Cubs (at home) and in St. Louis.
They shouldn’t look past the Reds, though; there’s not much room for error against the bottom part of the National League for the top part, and the Pirates already have series losses to the Reds and Padres. Every win against a team like the Reds makes wins over the Cardinals and Cubs count a little bit more.
The Pirates will not skip Juan Nicasio in the rotation after yesterday’s rainout. I had some thought that they might, but keeping Nicasio pitching keeps Gerrit Cole on schedule for Monday; that both lets him pitch against the Cubs AND avoids him having to pitch against the Reds. Dan Straily pitches for the Reds tonight; he made an excellent relief appearance against the Pirates on that bad weekend in Great American Ballpark where the Pirates were leaving runners on base all over the place. Hopefully the Pirates are past that now.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05.
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