Inside of a week the Pirates have gone from a horrible ball of stress and frustration to a vaunted offense bludgeoned their way towards the upper part of the National League. This is possible because it’s only April, of course, but it’s a welcome change from the week that preceded it.
Jon Niese takes the mound tonight to try and keep his perfect record intact, though I’ll admit that his first few starts have me concerned about tonight. Niese has looked good in some of his starts and missed some bats, but he’s had a bit of a home run problem and his groundball rate probably isn’t what the Pirates wanted it to be when they picked him up over the winter. He’s got a few fastballs that he throws, though, so he can probably lean on them tonight given the way that Cole and Locke have approached pitching in Coors this week.
Jon Gray starts for the Rockies; he wasn’t great for them last year and his one start this year featured a bunch of strikeouts and a bunch of homers. His last start of 2015 came against the Pirates, and they chased him in 4 2/3 innings; Starling Marte homered and Jordy Mercer doubled off of him twice.
First pitch tonight is at 8:40.
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