Series: Pirates vs. Brewers, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
TV, radio: Root Sports, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Facts: No facts today, because let's be honest, I hate the Brewers. I hate everything about them. I hate that they untuck their shirts when they win games. I hate that they act like they have won something when actually they have won just about as much as the Pirates have recently. I actually dislike Ryan Braun more than any other MLB player. More than A-Rod, more than anyone. Now, I also hate the Brewers because for the last few years they have absolutely owned the Pirates. Up until last year the Pirates had lost 22 consecutive games in Milwaukee, now I know these 3 games are in Pittsburgh but c'mon, 22 games in a row. That equates to no victories from May of 2007 until April 2010. Also, last year you may remember this abomination at the hands of the Brewers. All that embarrassment and the Brewers general jackassery makes me hate them and that's why I hope the Pirates can find a way to at least take 2 of 3 from them.
Pitching Probables:
Stats and Matchup: Take a quick look at the stats of the 3 Pirates starting pitchers that I have listed as probable's above. They have a combined ERA of 1.85 with 3 wins and 5 quality starts. Doesn't sound like a team that should be 5-5 but the Pirates lost Maholm's great start in Chicago and a Charlie Morton start just a few nights ago. It seems that the pitching either has a great start and then a crappy bullpen or the exact opposite as we saw in the Pirates 14 inning victory against the Rockies where the bullpen went 11 1/3 innings without allowing a run. Needless to say, if the Pirates are going to continue to play .500 baseball they will need at least decent starting and relief pitching because they aren't going to score a ton of runs. Speaking of runs, Jose Tabata has to be the player to watch in this series. To date he is hitting .342 with a hit in all 10 games this year. Also, Tabata has scored 11 runs in those 10 games and has an OBP of .457. Now there is no way that Tabata can keep up this high level of production but so far, Hurdle's decision to make Tabata his leadoff hitter is proving to be the right one. I look for Tabata to have a good series and also to get his first triple of the season.
Prediction: There are so many reason why I want the Pirates to play well against the Brewers in this series and most of them I have already laid out in my "Facts" section above. With that being said I think the Pirates will/can win tonight against Marcum. The reason I feel that way is with Correia on the mound and none of the Pirates having a single at bat against Marcum the game will remain low scoring. I think Correia will be good enough for the Pirates to get the win. As the series moves on, I actually think that the Pirates could win both games 2 and 3 because neither Randy Wolf nor Chris Narveson does anything for me. Game 1 of the series has now been cancelled and both teams will push their Game 1 starters back to Game 2. I now like at worst a split in the series because I think the Bucs can get to the soft throwing Randy Wolf. However, he is 8-3 with a 4.35 ERA in his career against the PBC. With all that being said, I still think the Pirates exercise the demons and earn at least a split with Milwaukee, righting the ship in a way as they then head to Cincinnati to face the division leading Reds.
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