There is no doubt that the Pirate offense has been much improved over the last week. In their last six games, they’ve scored 34 runs and they’ve won five of those games. This has overlapped with Andrew McCutchen doubling his season extra base hit total, which is surely not coincidence. They haven’t faced much in the way of starting pitching in these six games, though, and so tonight’s game is interesting in that they’re going to face Cole Hamels.
Hamels hasn’t quite been himself this year; the strikeouts are there, but he’s walking a ton of hitters and giving up a bunch of home runs. His stats are skewed pretty heavily by two bad starts in the early part of the season, though; he gave up four home runs to Boston on Opening Day, and he walked five Washington Nationals in his third start of the year. His last four starts have been mostly better, though he’s only one start removed from getting hit hard by the Marlins. He’s been uneven, I suppose is what I’m saying. That’s true of the Pirate offense, too, though if the Pirate offense has been good at one thing over the last few years, it’s getting runners on base and eventually having a baseball find its way over the fence.
Francisco Liriano takes the mound for the Bucs, and I’m interested to see how he does against a severely underpowered Philadelphia lineup, because in each of his last three starts, he’s seemed just every so slightly off. Three starts ago against Arizona, he was more or less unhittable, but he gave up six walks to go with the two hits he allowed over seven shutout innings. Two starts ago against St. Louis, he was again tough to hit, but he barely struck anyone out (just four in eight innings of work). In his last start, his strikeout and walk numbers looked great (10 Ks, one walk in 6 2/3), but he gave up two home runs and six earned runs in those 6 2/3 innings. It’s odd, because the combined effect looks solid for a three-start linescore — 20 2/3 innings, 21 K, 10 BB, 2 HR, 11 H, 7 R, 6 ER — but I can’t shake the feeling that he hasn’t been quite on top of his game in any of those starts. If any opposing lineup can get him back on track, its this Phillie lineup.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05. A win locks up a series win for the Pirates.
Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images
