The Pittsburgh Pirates probably wouldn’t have minded if Major League Baseball pushed the 2015 All-Star festivities back another week or two. After all, the Pirates are 10-2 in the month of July and have been the hottest team in baseball, hence how they suddenly find themselves just 2.5 games back of the MLB-best Cardinals for first-place in the NL Central.
As hot as the Pirates have been, they still enjoyed the All-Star break, as they got to see Andrew McCutchen, A.J. Burnett and Gerrit Cole all get recognition for their stellar efforts on the field in 2015. That pause to appreciate fine play didn’t last long, though, as Tuesday’s All-Star game is already a thing of the past and the Pirates will quickly be looking ahead to a key weekend series with their NL Central rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers.
A matchup with the division’s worst team and one of the weakest teams in baseball usually wouldn’t be regarded as “key,” but this is precisely the type of series the Pirates need to be sure not to “let up” on. Pittsburgh enters this series at Miller Park knowing they have the leg up on the Brew Crew, having won six of nine against them this season, and if they play their game, they should be able to win at least two of the three games this weekend. Provided Pittsburgh takes care of business, Pirates tickets on SeatSmart.com are slated to return major value starting right away in game one, where the average ticket costs just $49. Fans even get a nice T-Shirt Giveaway to get things started at Miller Park, while fans can also hit the cheap seats for only $11.
The average ticket price throughout the rest of the series remains very similar, according to SeatSmart.com. In fact, the second game of this three-game set is nearly exactly the same, with an average price of $46 and a get-in price of $8. Meanwhile, the series finale on Sunday actually consists of the same exact price as the opener, being $49 on average and just $8 to get in the door. The Pirates would be wise not to underestimate their division foes, as the Brewers have improved mightily since their slow start to the year, which led to the dismissal of manager Ron Roenicke. Since Craig Counsell took over, Milwaukee has played much better and could easily be a playoff spoiler opposing a lot of teams down the stretch.
The Brewers aren’t the toughest opponent on the schedule, but the value is clear against an NL Central rival. On top of that, this could be what continues Pittsburgh’s current monster run, and maybe help lead them past the Cardinals into first place in the division. It’s a winnable matchup and could be more than enough to convince Pirates fans to make the trip, especially while the price of this series is considerably under the club’s average ticket price of $73.57 on the year. Either way, the Pirates have something special going on right now and this series will be key in helping maintain that to kick off the season’s second half.
