If prompted to name one person most directly responsible for the Pirates’ early exist from the 2014 MLB Playoffs, I think most Pirate fans would come up with one of the following names, in order of preference:
- Madison Bumgarner, for being super-human.
- Clint Hurdle, for not saving Gerrit Cole.
- Edinson Volquez, for pitching poorly in the Wild Card Game.
- Brandon Crawford, who used a grand slam to silence 40,000 people as quickly as anyone has, ever.
And that’s it. But I’d add one more name to the list: Johnny Cueto. I’m going to show you Cueto’s numbers against the Pirates last year, and you’re not going to like it:
After the Pirates embarrassed Johnny Cueto in the 2013 Wild Card Game at PNC Park, Cueto destroyed them last year. From the first time he saw them on April 16th to the season’s final day, Johnny Cueto antagonized the Pirates. For a team that came two games away from winning the NL Central, having those six Cueto-started-games stare back at you is rough to see. Simply put, if the Pirates had found a way to win 1/3 of the games that Cueto started against them in 2014, they would’ve tied the Cardinals for the NL Central. Now, it’s Opening Day and Cueto is staring back at them again.
I don’t have a whole lot else to say about this game since I just put down 1,500 words into a season preview this morning, so let’s leave it at this: the Pirates are going to have to find a way to beat pitchers like Johnny Cueto and Madison Bumgarner if they want 2015 to end differently than 2014, and they need Francisco Liriano to put together a season more like his 2013 than his inconsistent 2014.
First pitch today is at 4:10. Whatever is going to happen in 2015 starts today.
Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images
