It’s funny how simple things can be sometimes, isn’t it? The Pirates have played roller coaster baseball the entire second half, and it seems like almost every single time they’re able to string a few wins together, they find themselves back in a playoff spot, no matter how ugly things looked a few days before. The Pirates have beaten the Cubs twice to start this series in Wrigley, and now they’re within a half game of both the Braves and Brewers. If the Pirates can win today and both of those teams lose, they’ll find that script flipped at the end of the afternoon.
This is frustrating, of course, because if the Pirates could just have just avoided the deepest depths of their slumps, they might find themselves in a stronger Wild Card position or still in the NL Central race. Back in the old days, an Andy Van Slyke quote used to adorn the header of this blog: Every season has its peaks and valleys, what you have to try to do is eliminated the Grand Canyon. Somehow, the Pirates keep narrowly avoiding the Grand Canyon this year.
I would, for one moment, like to give some credit where credit is due to Clint Hurdle yesterday. Hurdle left nothing in the back in his attempt to win the suspended game that had to be finished before the regularly scheduled game could start; he used Tony Watson and Mark Melancon for four innings apiece, ensuring that there was no way they could pitch in the night cap. That could’ve gone disastrously for him (imagine losing the game in which Watson and Melancon pitched four innings, then having the bullpen implode in the full game), but it was absolutely the right call. Win the game in front of you, deal with the next game when it happens. As it turned out, the bullpen wasn’t a huge part of the Pirates’ 5-0 win in the second game and it wasn’t a huge deal that the team’s two best relievers were unavailable. Hurdle always gets crap when the Pirates’ lose, so I think it’s worth pointing out when he deserves some credit for the win.
Gerrit Cole starts for the Pirates today. I will more or less reiterate what I’ve been saying about Cole before his last couple of starts: Cole has looked mostly excellent since coming off of the disabled list, but there’s plenty of reason to think that his stamina isn’t quite there and when he hits the wall, he hits it hard. The Cubs have a lot of swing-and-miss guys in this lineup and so it wouldn’t surprise me to see Cole start off strong in the same way that Francisco Liriano did yesterday evening, but starting in the sixth inning Hurdle should be ready to pull him at the first sign of trouble if the game is even remotely close. The Pirates lost to the Cardinals last Monday because Hurdle wasn’t prepared to do precisely that, and they flat-out cannot afford to repeat the same mistake again.
Travis Wood starts for the Cubs. He really just has not pitched consistently well at any point this year. The Pirates have looked better against lefties lately, and they hit Felix Doubront well last night. Put simply: this should be a winnable game for the Pirates. They can’t afford to lose winnable games right now.
First pitch is at 2:20.
