After Gerrit Cole’s stellar start last night, the Pirates now get to send AJ Burnett and Francisco Liriano out to try and win this series in San Francisco. That’s a nice position to be in.
Burnett is ostensibly coming off of his worst start of 2015, though I suspect many pitchers would be happy to accept as their worst. He was handed a huge lead before running into trouble, in part due to suspect defense, in a ballpark that has mysteriously become a launching pad overnight. I don’t think Burnett will finish the season with an ERA under 2.00, but I’m not exactly sure his last start is the point at which we need to worry about a panic button.
The Giants are starting Chris Heston. I will not pretend to know a lot about Chris Heston — he’s 27 years old with very limited big league experience prior to this year. Heston has been solid in a back-of-the-rotation sort of way this year, but I wouldn’t say much more than that about his 2015 stats. I would say that I think the Pirates can score some runs off of him tonight, but when I voiced such opinions on Sunday, I appear to have jinxed the club. My lips are sealed.
First pitch tonight is at 10:15.
Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
