Take a deep breath. It’s September 12th, and the Pirates have nine scheduled games left at PNC Park in 2014. They are 1 1/2 games up in the wild card race on the Brewers, and the last three of these nine games will be against the Brewers. They’re only 2 1/2 back of the Cardinals, which is significant but not insurmountable. The entire 2014 season could be decided in part by the Pirates at PNC Park in nine games over the next ten days. I know I said things like this over and over again last year, but these are the games that were missing from our lives as Pirate fans for 20 years. Sometimes it’s nice just to take a second to appreciate that the Pirates really have made it on to the other side.
The Pirates swept the Cubs at Wrigley Field last weekend, but just as I wrote before that series and before the just-concluded Phillies’ series, I wouldn’t count on the Cubs just rolling over. The Pirates have won six of seven because the Cubs and Phillies are bad, yes, but they’ve also won those games because they’re playing good, solid baseball at the right time of year. They can’t overlook the Cubs or Red Sox here for the seven games against the Brewers and Braves that are waiting for them; they need to go strong through this whole homestand. In other words: the Pirates can win these games, but they won’t necessarily win themselves.
Gerrit Cole starts tonight. He looked excellent for most of his starts against the strikeout-happy Cub lineup, but he again ran out of gas just a little sooner than you’d probably like him to. Since the Pirates had built a huge lead on Sunday, I don’t have a problem with Clint Hurdle trying to stretch him out some to rebuild his stamina. I will mention again, though, that in a close game he should be on a short leash from the fifth inning onwards. The bullpen is a little deeper now than it has been, and losing a winnable game because you wanted to get Gerrit Cole a sixth inning is not an acceptable option at this point in the season. Tsuyoshi Wada starts for the Cubs. He pitched OK against the Pirates in last Friday’s rain-addled game at Wrigley, but was pulled in the fourth inning after getting into a bit of trouble early in the inning and then suffering from leg cramps. The Pirates looked OK against him, and Jordy Mercer and Starling Marte have made the Pirates a much more dangerous team against lefties of late.
Anyway, the first pitch is at 7:05. I don’t know if the Pirates can make up this deficit in the NL Central, but I do know that if they’re going to do it, they have to win games like this one.
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