The Most Important Game of the Year (so far)

I’m never one to shy away from hyperbole, but this really is the most important game all season. With a win today, the Pirates split a road trip out west against two good teams and presumably, it happened at least in part because Charlie Morton bounced back from his Friday nightmare in Arizona. If they lose, then it’s an ugly 2-4 trip that featured at least three blowout losses and doesn’t seem to bode well at all for our first go-round with the NL Central.

Morton really is the key here. Even in his two solid innings in Arizona, he threw a ton of pitches. With the Pirate pitchers only recording outs past the sixth inning once since his last start, a short start this afternoon would really not be helpful at all. We know he’s got the stuff and his last outing did nothing to dissuade that notion, even if his line was ugly. So where does he go from there?

First pitch is at 3:45 ET, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.

Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun through so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.

Thanks to his three hits, including the eighth inning go-ahead single, Garrett Jones is last night‘s Clemente, with Brendan Donnelly finishing up in second. That might surprise some people (well, maybe it wouldn’t if I’d get around to doing my full explanation post, but … taxes, man — being a “self-employed” blogger complicates things), but consider it this way; Donnelly entered a one-run game in the eighth inning with the Pirates six outs away from victory, and exited the game with that lead intact and only three outs away from victory. Also, Andrew McCutchen doesn’t get bonus points for being faster than the Flash, even if it seems like he should.

The Cangelosis are Doumit and Clement. Doumit probably seems a little surprising, but his out with runners on first and third and just one out in the eighth right after Jones’ go-ahead single was costly. Clement is probably not surprising to anyone since he went 0/3.

Here are today’s standings.

1. Woodward – 9
2. Wizard of Woz, LRNeub – 7
3. brian2 – 6
4. North Shore Ryan – 5
5. IndianaJohns04, dboz, appeal2smail, apk, dafletch, hisjazziness – 4
6. TomKaikis, apk, Joek – 3
7. PatrickHealy, appeal2smail, UtesFan89, whygavs, CarnegieChip, TheJewelryMan! – 2
8. FSU Bucs, Nate, Christy, MattB, hisjazziness, Mr. Ando – 1
9. Everyone else – 0
10. NSN, CoryR, Mosca, ndbrian, fruitbat – (-1)