Series: Pirates @ Cardinals, Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO
TV, radio: Root Sports, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Facts: The Pirates enter their second series of the season with a 2-1 record and currently sit in 2nd place in the NL Central, 1 game behind the Reds. The Pirates pitching staff currently has a 1.98 ERA with two of the three starters allowing no earned runs in their respective starts. Obviously that kind of success isn't going to continue, but it is nice to point out for a unit that last year was the worst in baseball. Lastly, Andrew McCutchen was scratched from Sunday's game with a sore neck that was the result of diving for a ball in the gap in Saturday's game. I wish the Pirates would have told me that a little sooner so I could have sat him on my bench in my fantasy league. Never the less, McCutchen should return Monday against the Cardinals.
Side note: I started this preview as the Pirates started to bat in the top of the 9th against the Cubs today and to be completely honest I had little faith in a comeback considering the fact that Carlos Marmol had mowed down the Bucs yesterday afternoon. Yet, here we are with the first series victory of the year, along with the first road series victory of the year. The Pirates have now won 2 road games and are 12% of the way to their road win total of a year ago.
Pitching Probables:
Monday, April 4 - Charlie Morton (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Kyle Lohse (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Tuesday, April 5 - James McDonald (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Kyle McClellan (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Wednesday, April 6 - Kevin Correia (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Chris Carpenter (0-0, 2.57 ERA)
Stats and Matchup: The Pirates took 2 of 3 from the Cubs in Wrigley over the weekend and now move on to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals. The Pirates had 16 hits (all singles) against Cubs pitchers on Sunday and every starting player, including Ross Ohlendorf had a hit. In addition each and every starter also struck out at least once. The Pirates were 6-9 against the Cardinals last year with only 1 of those wins coming on the road. Jose Tabata is hitting .455 this year with 5 singles and 5 runs scored, exactly the type of production that you want out of your leadoff hitter. Tabata is a career .426 hitter against the Cardinals with 20 hits and 3 triples in 12 career games. Albert Pujols is a hitting .374 against the Pirates in his career which is his highest average against any of the 5 NL Central teams. He has 45 home runs and has 134 RBI's in 152 games. Ouch. Needless to say he is the guy the Pirates need to be worried about with Matt Holliday out of the lineup for the foreseeable future.
Prediction: The Pirates look to win back to back road series for the first time in what seems like forever and they will have to do it in the first two games because Chris Carpenter on the mound in game 3 is pretty much a no win in my eyes. I am excited to see Morton and McDonald get the ball on back to back days against the Cardinals 4 and 5 starters. Morton and McDonald are without question the Pirates most talented pitchers with good breaking balls and heaters that reach the mid 90's. I say the Pirates take one of the first two but can't take the series from the Cardinals in St. Louis. However, returning home with a 3-3 road trip would have to be considered a victory for this team.
Love the prediction section and it looks like you might be 100% right. We go 1-1 before facing Carpenter tonight and I'm not too optimistic about winning it. But still excited going 3-3 on our first roadtrip and heading home. Benny- Are you going to any games soon?
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