Saying that the Pirates’ current eight-game deficit in the NL Central isn’t a big deal because it’s “early” in the season is true, but it’s something that only holds true if the Pirates don’t get any further behind the Cardinals and if the Pirates start to play better against National League Central teams. Depending on how full your glass of water is, that means it’s either good news or bad news that the Pirates are hosting the Cardinals at PNC Park this weekend. I think I’ll wait until after this series to fully take stock of the Pirates’ position in the Central, but the stakes in this one are awfully clear: a five-or-seven-game deficit in the Central right now would be vastly preferable to a nine-or-eleven-game deficit. There’s no such thing as a “must-win” game in May, but the Pirates have lost seven of their last nine games and all of those games have been against NL Central opponents. That’s a good way to ensure that you never actually play a must-win game. The Pirates have to be more like the team than played last night this weekend than the team that played the eight games prior to that one.
The good news is this: the series opens with Francisco Liriano on the mound. Liriano has been consistently great against the Cardinals since his arrival in the NL Central, and he looked fantastic against them last Saturday despite having no offense to support him. The Pirates have only won once in Liriano’s five starts this year and that is in no way a reflection on how he’s pitched. The law of averages says if he keeps pitching the way he did last Saturday, he’ll get things turned around. Michael Wacha starts for the Cards. He shut the Pirates down last Sunday, but he didn’t generate a ton of strikeouts the way the pitchers that have really dominated the Pirates have so far in 2015. I’m interested to see how the Pirates handle seeing him twice in a week; I suspect they might have some more success this time around.
As bad as the Pirates have been in Busch Stadium the last couple of years, the Cardinals are just 7-14 at PNC Park in the last two seasons (playoffs included). Every Pirate fan is sure that the Bucs are better than they’ve been in the last three series: this is a good time to start proving it.
First pitch tonight is at 7:05.
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