Now that it’s time to write a game preview for this game, I sort of feel talked out. I’ve said my piece about Edinson Volquez and about the Pirate offense and about the historical precedent between the Pirates and Giants and the nature of these one-game playoffs. I haven’t talked about the Giants much, but most of what I have to say can be boiled down into a couple of sentences. Madison Bumgarner is a good left-handed pitcher and he’s certainly capable of dominating this game, but he’s also occasionally uneven and the Pirate offense is good enough to provide a counterweight to him. The Giants have a few excellent offensive players Buster Posey is having a scorching hot second half as good or better than any of the scorching hot second halves that the Pirates’ hitters are having. Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence are exactly what they’ve always been: very-good-but-not-quite-great hitters. Brandon Belt battled a lot of injuries this year, including a lingering concussion from a batting practice injury. He closed the season with a strong week against the Padres, though, and I think their lineup looks a lot different if he’s an offensive threat tonight. I’m not quite sure that they’re as deep as the Pirates are from 1-8, though I’m also not sure that matters in a one-game playoff.
At this point, all that’s really left to do is to play the game. This is where superstition takes over for the fans. I flew into Pittsburgh last night and am headed down to the park in a few minutes and barely know what to do with myself. The picture up above was my bed last night before I left; I couldn’t figure out which black shirt was a lucky shirt, so I packed all of them. I’ve been pacing in between blog posts all day today. This Pirate team has had a great season and knowing that it boils down to a one-game playoff is pretty maddening. That’s the way baseball is right now, though, so what can we do?
I suppose the only thing that I’d say in the way of a “preview” for this game is a reminder that it’s a one-game playoff, and that Volquez should be on a really short leash tonight. Both the A’s and Royals hung on to their starters for too long last night, and both of them paid for it. By the same token, though, Ned Yost almost paid dearly for going to a starter directly out of the bullpen last night, which is something that seems to bite managers in the playoffs a lot. There might be a situation where Francisco Liriano or Vance Worley seem like a good idea for the Pirates, but if they can get by with their regular rotation of relievers throwing multiple innings, they might be better off doing things that way, as terrifying as their bullpen can be.
One game playoffs are weird. I think on paper the Pirates are probably the better team and that Bumgarner is the better pitcher, but that doesn’t really matter. All that really matters tonight is who gets the big hit or the lucky bounce in the right place. That might boil down to skill and that might boil down to luck. All we can do now is hold our breath and see what happens.
First pitch tonight is at 8:07. Here goes nothing.
