The Pittsburgh Pirates are playing about as poor as they have in years. The offense has been bad, the starting pitching has been bad and the bullpen has been about the same as it has been all season. The injuries to Francisco Cervelli and Gerrit Cole haven’t helped matters, but that is no excuse. The Pirates are simply not playing good baseball.
The Pirates were at 27-19 not that long ago and now they find themselves 33-33 after losing five of their last six series and with the Chicago Cubs looming, it doesn’t look like the schedule is going to get any easier. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint and it’s way too early to completely give up on any team, especially one with a track record of success like the Pirates have. That being said, it is hard to be super optimistic at the moment when Erik Kratz is seeing regular playing time. No disrespect to the backstop, but he is a huge drop off from Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart.
The Pirates are entering a very tough stretch as they are about to face the Cubs, San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers. That is a difficult stretch at any point of the season, much less when the Pirates are not playing well. They do play the games for a reason, so you just have to hope that the Pirates are able to play through this and right the ship soon. They are currently 12 games behind the Chicago Cubs and it doesn’t look like the Cubs are going to slow down any time soon.
Game one will feature Francisco Liriano trying to regain his form against Jake Arrieta. First pitch at at 2:20pm.
Series Result: Pirates lose 2-1
2016 win/loss record: 33-33
2016 series record: 10-10-1
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