The situation, such as it is: the Pirates have played awful, uninspiring baseball two straight nights at Wrigley Field, which is unfortunate because the Cubs now appear to be a legitimate NL Central rival. They aren’t hitting well, they aren’t pitching well, they aren’t fielding well at all. This is the exact sort of game in which you’d like to see your best pitcher starting.
Gerrit Cole is starting for the Pirates tonight. Cole has made four starts this year, he has pitched 24 2/3 innings, struck out 27 hitters, walked seven, given up just 19 hits, gotten groundballs at a ridiculous 62.1% rate, and has a 2.19 ERA. In other words, he’s showing signs that he’s turning into exactly the sort of pitcher you’d want to see on the mound in a game like this one. Cole’s last couple of starts have come against subpar offenses in Milwaukee and Arizona. The Cubs young lineup will test him a little bit differently, though they can also be prone to strikeouts. It’s an awfully interesting matchup, to say the least.
Kyle Hendricks starts for the Cubs. The Pirates forced him out of the game relatively quickly, though his final line wasn’t awful. It’s still April, so about the strongest statement I can make about this game is this: it’d be really nice for the Pirates to find a way to salvage a win in this series.
First pitch tonight is at 8:05.
Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images
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