Here’s the thing about winning streaks: they can’t ever be long enough. The Pirates have won six straight games, but the Cardinals have won four in a row and the Pirates are still 6 1/2 games behind them. Even with six straight wins, the Pirates have AJ Burnett on the mound tonight and Francisco Liriano going tomorrow; this streak stopping at six will feel disappointing.
The Pirates begin this West Coast swing in San Diego, where they’ve had all kinds of trouble the last few seasons. The good news, I guess, is that this totally revamped Padre team that was supposed to make noise in the NL West this year is not off to a great start; they’re 23-25 right now with a negative run differential and an offense that looks awfully abysmal with both Yonder Alonso and Wil Myers on the disabled list. They’ll send Ian Kennedy to the mound tonight. Kennedy is off to a rough start thanks almost entirely to an otherworldly 2.3 HR/9 rate. Last year he allowed 16 homers in 201 innings. This year he’s allowed nine in 35 1/3.
The Pirates were not a great road team last year, and they’ve been a bad one to this point in 2015. A strong West Coast trip would go a long way towards convincing me that they’re truly back on track. First pitch tonight is at 10:10.
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