These two wins to open the series against the Brewers have been nice. They’ve re-established the Pirates as legitimate wild card contenders, and served as a reminder that the Pirates have an offense to be reckoned with when it’s functioning at full capacity. What these wins have not done, quite yet, is re-establish the Pirates as legitimate NL Central contenders. That can’t happen without a win today, I don’t think; the difference between being three games out and five games out on August 25th is enormous. And so, as nice as the first two wins were, I want a third win, because I want the Pirates to have a chance to avoid a play-in game this year. You can see from the lineup today that Clint Hurdle feels the same way.
Vance Worley goes against Mike Fiers this afternoon. Hopefully Worley can avoid a first inning like the one he had against the Braves earlier this week. Fiers has only been back in the Brewers’ rotation for three starts. His numbers look great, but they’re skewed a bit by a 14-strikeout start against the Cubs. The Pirates have generally fared quite well against him in the past.
First pitch today is at 2:20.
