In the ever-growing pantheon of “biggest games of the year,” the Pittsburgh Pirates have a huge opportunity tonight in Philadelphia. The Cardinals lost to the Reds this afternoon and the Braves are off, while the Brewers play the Marlins again. At the very least a win shrinks the Cardinals’ division lead to 2 1/2 games (which suddenly seems manageable, even with less than 20 games left) and expands the Pirates’ lead over the Braves to two games. If the Brewers lose, too, it’ll mean that the Pirates have a two-game lead on a playoff spot. That’s not quite comfortable at this point, but it’s not insignificant, either.
Francisco Liriano and AJ Burnett are on the mound. Burnett’s second half should look familiar to you: he’s been occasionally brilliant and occasionally terrible and in general (thought not always) the terrible starts follow good prior starts with high pitch counts. Burnett threw 99 pitches his last time out, but that was his lowest pitch count in his last four starts. I don’t really know what to expect from him tonight, though if there’s a lineup capable of working the count, running his pitch count up, and forcing him to throw strikes, it’d be this Pirate lineup.
Francisco Liriano starts for the Pirates. He looked good last time out against a terrible Cub lineup. This Phillie lineup isn’t much better, though. Honestly, it sort of mystifies me how this Phillie team was playing good baseball before this series began; it’s almost impossible to look at the players that they put out on the field together and envision them doing anything but tying all of their shoes together in a horrifying rat-king of a mess of baseball cleats.
I have probably jinxed the Pirates to a loss tonight.
Remember, this isn’t a must-win game, it’s an opportunity. The Pirates haven’t cashed in on many of these opportunites this year, but if they can start doing it now, maybe what’s come before now won’t matter.
First pitch is at 7:10.
