There’s not much to say right now; the Pirates’ first big road test of 2015 against their likely biggest NL Central rivals has not started well. In four games, they lost pretty decisively twice to the Cubs and once in the sort of incredibly avoidable and frustrating loss that’s more or less defined their rivalry with the Cardinals since at least the start of 2014. The Pirates have to beat these teams to get back to the playoffs in 2015.
Francisco Liriano starts for the Bucs today. He started the season off with two really fantastic starts and has a sparkling 2.22 ERA right now, but he’s walked eight hitters in his last 11 1/3 innings. Obviously that’s concerning. John Lackey starts for the Cardinals. Besides one really nice start against the hapless Brewers, he’s been entirely unimpressive this year. With Michael Wacha and Vance Worley on the mound tomorrow, this seems like a game that could be important insofar as getting swept by the Cardinals is never really a good thing.
First pitch today is at 2:15.
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