TV, radio: Root Sports, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Facts/Reaction: The Pirates improve their home record to 3-6 after taking 2 of 3 from Washington Nationals over the weekend by getting a few good pitching efforts from Jeff Karstens and Paul Maholm. The Pirates are now 10-12 and yesterday became the 12th team in the National League to double digit wins. The Pirates claimed Brandon Wood this week from the Angels and Wood looks to start over after a terrible 5 year stint in the American League West. Wood started his tenure with the Pirates off in style by doubling in 2 runs in yesterdays 4-2 win over the Nationals. Hopefully Wood can relax and play to the potential he had when the Angels drafted him in the first round way back in 2003. The Pirates can honestly do no worse than Ronny Cedeno and Josh Rodriguez so really, what's to lose.
Pitching Probables:
Tuesday, April 26 - Charlie Morton (2-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. Matt Cain (2-1, 3.46 ERA)
Wednesday, April 27 - James McDonald (0-2, 10.13 ERA) vs. Juan Marichal (26-9, 2.43 ERA)
Thursday, April 28 - Jeff Karstens (2-0, 3.94 ERA) vs. Gaylord Perry (23-13, 3.20 ERA)
Stats and Matchup: The Pirates meet the World Champion Giants for the first time this year and look to win their second series at home. Luckily, it looks like the Pirates will miss Giants ace Tim Lincecum during the series which can't be anything but a good thing. As far as matchups go it is kind of hard to determine anything since the Giants aren't sure who they are throwing in games 2 and 3. However, Garrett Jones is a career .333 hitter against game 1's starter, Matt Catt. It's about time that Garrett breaks out and has himself a good series, so I am going to make him my breakout performer. On the Giants side, just about the entire team has killed James McDonald in their careers with the best of them being Pablo Sandoval who has a .429 average against McDonald. Also, Sandoval is on my fantasy team so hopefully he plays well, scores all of San Francisco's runs and the Pirates win all three games.
Prediction: The Pirates look to continue their winning ways (1 game and 1 series) by winning their series against the Giants. It is hard to get a reading on the series when the San Francisco's starters for games 2 and 3 are TBA. With that in mind I think that the Pirates can win game 1 and beat Matt Cain on Tuesday. Some of their hitter have had good success against him and honestly, he has never impressed me because his fastball is flat and he leaves his curveball up in the zone way too often. Anyways, if they beat Cain in game 1 they should have no problem with the TBA twins in games 2 and 3. Therefore, they should sweep the series and leave on their West Coast swing with an even 6-6 record at home. Honestly, I think the Pirates will win 1 of 3 games and finish their current home stand 3-3. Anything better would obviously be awesome. Even though the Giants are currently 10-11, they are still the defending champs and these are still the Pirates we are talking about.
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