The Pirates have been at or above .500 for almost two weeks now and having them in the thick of a division race in July makes for about as much fun as I’ve had watching baseball in a decade. The best way for the fun to continue, I think, is for them to rack up a bunch of wins against the Cubs and Astros over the next six days and see how high they can push this record. They get a tough matchup tonight with Wandy Rodriguez taking the mound against Jeff Karstens.
Rodriguez has been excellent this year and as I’ve said ad nauseum yesterday, the Pirates’ lineup against lefties is quite a bit weaker than it is against righties, even with Matt Diaz actually producing of late. I’m done betting against this Pirate team in any situation, though. Even though I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop on Jeff Karstens, the Astros lineup is probably not the one that’s going to knock that shoe off of the bed.
The first pitch tonight is at 7:05. With a win, the Pirates will be four games over .500 and have a shot at leaping the Brewers for second in the NL Central and getting within a half game of the Cardinals.
