Look: the Pirates just thumped the Unequivocally-Best-In-Baseball-Cardinals 20-8 over three days in St. Louis. The Reds are bad. There’s no reason to keep on losing to teams like this, at home, on the road, on Pluto, wherever.
Actually, hold on, here’s a reason: Jeff Locke starts for the Pirates today, Travis Snider makes his first Pirate appearance in almost a year in left field, Sean Rodriguez is playing shortstop. Rodriguez is on fire, of course (6-for-7 with a homer against the Cardinals this weekend, including the homer that put last night’s win out of reach), but still. It’s a holiday lineup. Locke is pitching for his spot in the rotation, which is something that it seems like we say every time he pitches but is particularly true here, with AJ Burnett’s return seeming imminent. Anthony DeSclafani starts for the Reds.
First pitch today is at 1:10. The Cubs and Cardinals are playing each other this week, which means if the Pirates take care of business against the Reds they’ll either gain ground on the Cards or get that much closer to home field in the Wild Card Game. That’s a bigger “if” than it should be, though. Enjoy your Labor Day.
