Sort of lost in all of the wailing and tooth-gnashing over the way the Pirates have played since Jordy Mercer went down is that the Pirates were more or less 0-3 in games played after the break before he was injured and that the only winnable game that the Pirates have lost since the break was lost because three everyday non-injured Pirates all suddenly forgot to play defense all at once. Which is to say that injuries suck and they have not helped the Pirates one bit, but the Pirates have not helped themselves much since the break, either.
I’ll be blunt: I don’t know if the Pirates can make up six games on the Cardinals from this point forward. I was sincerely hoping they would at least split with the Cards two weeks ago to avoid going into the break 6 1/2 down, and this cold streak coming out of the break has only served to put them in pretty much the same position with the clock turned forward by two series. They’re certainly not going to catch the Cards if they lose much more ground than they already have, though, and the only way that they will catch them is if they start playing better post haste.
Francisco Liriano starts for the Bucs tonight. I mean, he probably does. Doug Fister starts for the Nats. He has not been pitching well lately. The Nats lineup features Bryce Harper and eight other people that can’t really hit. The Nats swept the Pirates in DC a month ago, but that’s no excuse for this weekend. Turn it around now, or start thinking about retooling the rotation to make sure Gerrit Cole pitches in the Wild Card Game this year.
First pitch is at 7:05.
Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images
