It seems hard to believe, but the Pirates haven’t managed to string together five wins at any point yet in the 2014 season. There’s no better time for them to hit that mark for the first time this season than tonight, as the four wins that the Pirates have picked up in their last four games have vaulted them into a 1 1/2 game lead for the second wild card and kept them at least in stasis in the larger races to host the Wild Card Game or to win the NL Central. Those goals seem like pipe dreams, but, well, at least they’re still theoretically possible at this point if the Pirates keep playing well in this long stretch against bad teams.
Anyway, Josh Harrison is back in the lineup for the first time since turning his ankle in the continuation game on Saturday afternoon in Chicago. The Pirates have been scoring runs just fine without him, but obviously they could use his help at the top of the lineup. Gregory Polanco is getting his first start since before his demotion, back on August 24th. Edinson Volquez starts for the Bucs.I know that I’ve been skeptical of Volquez for much of this season, but since August 7th, he’s thrown 39 innings in six starts, struck out 31, walked 14, and only allowed two homers. His second half groundball rate is 53.3%. Basically, Volquez is doing a passable impression of the Dr. Jeckyll version of Charlie Morton right now, and that’s nothing to sneeze at at all. Certainly his performance is one of the things keeping the Pirate rotation afloat. David Buchanan starts for the Phillies; he’s been fairly underwhelming in his rookie season this year, though he did hold his own against the Pirates earlier this year.
First pitch tonight is at 7:10.
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