I’ve written quite a bit about the Pirates’ situation in the last two days, so tonight is easy: Francisco Liriano is probably the first or second most important piece to getting the Pirates back into the playoffs in the second half. In his last start on Sunday, his stuff looked OK but his control was awful. I’m always willing to give guys a one or two start grace period with their command when they come off of the disabled list. Playing the Rockies at home is a great place for Liriano to get back on track.
Jorge de la Rosa starts for the Rockies. He has not been great this year and his struggles have not been limited to Coors Field. Pedro Alvarez is being given the start against a lefty; I suspect he will not get a ton of these opportunities while Josh Harrison’s stat line looks good, so this is his chance to start proving he’s an every-day player again. The Pirates need to make up some lost time after what happened against the Cardinals and Reds before the break. That starts now. The clock is ticking.
First pitch is at 7:05.
