Series: Pirates @ Reds, Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, OH
TV, radio: Root Sports, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Facts: First off, how Great is the name of the Reds Stadium. "Great American Ballpark" just sounds like a place where America's Pastime should be played. Moving on...the Reds come off a series in which they took 2 of 3 from the Padres in San Diego. The Pirates come off a home stand in which they lost 5 of 6 and 4 in a row. Quite frankly, they can't hit. Period. Once again the Pirates pitching gave them a chance to win and all they could do was muster 3 hits while striking out 11 times. Paul Maholm went 7 innings while giving up 2 runs on 4 hits and striking out 6. Great outing by Maholm. Honestly, I don't think anyone thought the Pirates offense would be this bad or that their pitching would actually be this respectable. Moreover, I hate the Brewers and can't stand when they win, let alone when they beat the Pirates. Lastly, the Pirates scored a grand total of 20 runs in 6 games while being completely shut out (almost) in the 2 game series against the Brewers. Zero runs in back to back games. Zero freakin' runs. OK, one freakin' run. Hopefully the Buccos find a way out of this rut soon before they get too far under .500.
Pitching Probables:
Stats and Matchup: OK, Doug Drabek, circa 1990, when he won the NL Cy Young Award as a member of the Bucs will not be starting Sunday against the Reds but the Pirates haven't named their starter yet so I figured that a 48 year old Drabek could do just about as well as anyone that Pirates plan to throw out there. Now moving on...let's get this out of the way, the Reds are good. Really good. If you look below at some of the ERA's of their pitchers you wouldn't think that this would be a team with a record of 8-4 that currently sits atop the NL Central. But when you look at the bigger picture, it really has nothing to do with the pitching. It has everything to do with the Reds offense. They are currently 1st in runs scored, 3rd in batting average, 3rd in on-base percentage and 6th in slugging percentage. That is one stout offense. In addition to that, the Reds have only committed 6 errors. Many say that pitching and defense wins championships but apparently offense and defense wins games in April.
Prediction: Honestly, the Pirates have shown me nothing in the past 6 games to show me that they can score enough runs to be competitive let alone actually win a game. So with that being said I don't see the Pirates winning anymore than 1 game in Cincinnati. The Reds just flat out score runs and the Pirates just don't. Also, even though some of the Reds pitchers look to be vulnerable, the Pirates aren't exactly the 1927 Yankees. Not too much to be scared of in their lineup currently with McCutchen struggling, Pedro benched and Walker leading the league in strikeouts. Oh well, the Pirates will be lucky to be 7-9 by the time the series against the Reds ends.
We looked good last night! Why do you think we play so much better on the road? Also, despite last night...do we really have any hope for being over .500 again?
ReplyDeleteHow about them Buccos. Three out of Four from the Reds, on the Road and a complete game for Correia to boot. And don't look now but the Battling Bucs are standing at .500. If only this was late September and it was 81-81 and Correia had just won his 20th game. But to dream.
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