No one could have predicted the manner in which the Pittsburgh Pirates would beat the San Francisco Giants last night. We’ll try some more predictions anyway.
Welcome to another edition of Pittsburgh Pirates Predictions, in which we make predictions about five Pirate performances in the upcoming week. We also take a look back at the previous week’s predictions to see how each panned out.
Last week (Monday, June 6 through Sunday, June 12), the Pirates went 1-5 and besides Jameson Tallion’s gem against the Mets, there weren’t a lot of positives for the Pirates. Our predictions were a little more optimistic, so let’s see how we did.
We said Tony Watson will have a great week. We thought that Tony Watson’s luck would turn this week and he would allow 1 ER or less. He allowed none although he was only used once for one inning of work. This prediction was correct but not as satisfying as it could have been.
We predicted that Gregory Polanco would step up. We thought Polanco’s slow June start would turn into a week where he hit for a .300 average. He was 4 for 18 for a .222 average with 7 strikeouts, below what we predicted. This prediction was a miss.
We thought Starling Marte would use his speed to make a difference. We expected that Marte would steal 3-4 bases last week given the pitcher / catcher combinations he was facing. Instead he took a one-hopper to the face and sat out for two plus games. It is hard to steal bases from the bench. This one turned out to be a miss.
We predicted the Pirates would win a game at New York in late innings. We thought the Pirates had hit fairly well in late innings, but had not generated many late, come-from-behind wins. Well, they almost pulled it off in the June 11 game, rallying for 4 runs in the 8th and 9th innings. Usually, 4 runs in the last two innings will win it, but in this case, it made the game a 6-4 loss instead of a 6-0 loss. This was a miss.
We thought that Jake Arrieta would continue his dominance of the Pirates. We might as well of predicted that the sun would come up in the morning. Of course Arrieta dominated the Pirates, with eleven strikeouts and no earned runs. Unfortunately, we got this one right.
Another 2-5 week for the Pirates Prediction Machine. Just like the Pirates, we were hindered by injuries and trying to dig out of too big a hole too often.
For this week (June 20-26), the Pirates face the San Francisco Giants and the L.A. Dodgers four times each (the fourth game against the Dodgers will fall into next week’s predictions). They will face tough starting pitching and quality teams for the third week in a row. Strangely, there is still optimism in the air as this article is written. Starling Marte is back in the lineup and they are returning to PNC Park. Given that, here are our five predictions for the week.
The Pirates will split the series with the Giants. The Pirates always play the Giants tough, especially at home. The Giants are the hottest team in baseball right now having won their last 8 and are 11-5 in June. Otherwise, we might be tempted to predict a 3-1 series win.
Buster Posey will keep the Pirates running game in check. Posey is good at controlling the running game and his battery mates are just as good. The Pirates will have no more than two stolen bases in all the games that Posey catches.
Josh Harrison will continue to hit in bunches. Harrison has been reliable in an inconsistent Pirates offense this year. He already has 22 multi-hit games this season with two multi-hit games last week. We expect at least two more multi-hit games this week.
Jameson Taillon will rebound. Taillon realized the honeymoon was over in the first inning of the June 19th Cubs game. However, he seems like a player who doesn’t give up easily and can funnel his past failures into future success. He lines up favorably with the Dodgers on Friday night. He will pitch a more efficient game, much like his first start against the Mets. We think he will need no more than 85 pitches for the first five innings. To do that he will have to keep L.A. to less than 3 earned runs.
The Pirates will beat Clayton Kershaw. Seriously? OK, so technically, they might not score any runs off Kershaw, but they will win the game by driving his pitch count up and getting to the L.A. Bullpen. This is a risky prediction because we don’t really know who will start for the Pirates. Nicasio is scheduled but it could just as easily be a AAA call-up. If the Pirates beat Clayton Kershaw with say, Chad Kuhl on the mound, then we should get triple credit for this prediction!
That’s the five predictions for the Pittsburgh Pirates for this week. Don’t forget to tune in next week to see how we did.
Featured Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
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