Much of the 2014/2015 off-season was spent talking about the Cubs. They signed Jon Lester, poached Joe Maddon away from the Rays, they have a huge stable of minor league talent, they kept Kris Bryant in the minor leagues to save a season of service time despite having more money than Croesus, etc. etc. etc. Frankly, it got a little tiring.
This is the best part about the beginning of a new baseball season, though: all of the talking is behind us, and now the Pirates and Cubs are playing each other for the first time in what could be a few years of meaningful baseball games. The Cubs seem like they could be a perfectly hateable rival in the next few years (I feel bad about saying this because a writer for a Chicago Cubs’ newsletter told me this morning that he felt like the Pirates were the one non-Cub team he could pull for in the NL Central this year and I appreciate that sentiment; unfortunately my heart is full of only boiling rage when it comes to all other NL Central teams — I swear it’s nothing personal), what with the money and the talent and the obnoxious way everyone falls over themselves to talk about how cool Joe Maddon is and with all of the Cubs fans at PNC Park all of the time. I don’t know if we’re there yet, but it’s coming.
The Cubs are 6-5, the Pirates are 6-6. It is obnoxious to be told that every game counts over and over again in April, but how many Pirate fans thought back to Jason Grilli and Ryan Braun over Easter weekend as last year’s playoff race wore on through the end of the summer? That’s not to say these games will end up like that, only that they could.
It is difficult to sort out exactly what to make of these early-season Pittsburgh Pirates. They played kind of well against the Reds, but got swept. They pitched great against the Tigers, but failed to score much and lost the series. They obliterated a Milwaukee Brewer team that might have been a group of ultimate frisbee players found in a local park and put in baseball uniforms and told to just take the field and let whatever happens happen because no one else felt like showing up for work today. I would like to see the Pirates beat a team other than the Brewers, I guess is my point, though I don’t feel that they played overwhelmingly poorly against either the Cubs or the Reds.
AJ Burnett starts today for the Pirates. He’s been excellent this year. Jake Arrieta starts for the Cubs. I think he probably lead the league in having notifications sent to my phone that someone unlikely was on the verge of throwing a no-hitter. He also has been excellent this year. Jung Ho Kang will start for the Pirates at short tonight, because Jordy Mercer got hit in the chest with a fastball yesterday. That seems like a good reason for a guy to get a day off.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05.
Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images
