Last night was not good for the Pirates. Kevin Correia had trouble with the two things that gave him the most trouble last year — walks and homers — and the Pirates and their short bullpen are going to have trouble any night that a starter can’t get out of the sixth inning. Josh Tomlin probably wasn’t a great matchup for the Pirates as he’s had excellent control all year, which means to free passes for an offense that’s struggled to find hits lately.
So how do the Pirates avoid falling into yet another pit of interleague despair? By winning tonight, of course. Paul Maholm has rolled off two straight good starts against the D’Backs and Mets and besides his meltdown against the Mets with that 7-0 lead a couple weeks ago, he’s been excellent since the beginning of May. As has been the story of late, the Pirates need a big start and they need to hope that the offense can get to Carlos Carrasco a little more than they got to Tomlin last night.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05. Pirates lost last night, but they’re still above .500 heading into this one. That’s a weird thing to write this late into June. A win tonight means it’s still true.
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