Well, that was emphatic.
The Pirates needed a win today to keep their hopes of winning the NL Central alive, and so they went out and bludgeoned the Braves with a 10-1 win to pull within one game of the Cardinals as the 2014 MLB season heads into its final weekend.
Really, the explosion of runs didn’t come until later in the game. The Braves had to dig well into their bullpen because of the limitations on starter David Hale, and so the Pirates turned a 3-0 game into a 10-0 game in the seventh and eighth innings. Up until that point, Edinson Volquez was the biggest story in the game. He cruised through seven easy innings, striking out ten Braves, walking one, and scattering four hits. I’m still wary of the idea of Volquez starting the Wild Card Game (he’s still just two starts removed from walking five Cubs in seven innings, and I’m not sure the Giants will let him get away with that), but there’s no question that he’s the club’s third best starter right now, and there’s a decent chance he’ll get a start before the Division Series next week if the Pirates tie the Cardinals and have more than one game.
OK, so let’s run through the offensive highlights. Josh Harrison had three hits and retook the NL batting lead. He scored three times. Travis Snider started the scoring in the first with a solo homer and also had three hits. Neil Walker broke out of his slump with his 22nd homer of the year to cap the scoring for the night at ten. Starling Marte had two hits, drove in two runs, and somehow has his average up to .293. We’ve spent so much time focused on McCutchen and Harrison and Martin that you’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice that Starling Marte is somewhere in the 4-5 WAR range this year, depending on your favorite defensive metric.
The Pirates are 87-72. If they sweep the Reds, they just might find themselves in a tie for the NL Central when all the dust has settled. That’d really be something.
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