Series: Pirates vs. Rockies, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
TV, radio: Root Sports, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Facts: The Pirates return home to the friendly confines of PNC Park with their first back to back road series victories since, wait for it...August 2007. Whoa. With a road trip that successful (by any teams standards) the Buccos look to begin their home slate against the Rockies in a similar fashion. The Rockies are coming off a three game sweep of the Dodgers in Denver earlier this week and are 3-1 on the season with one of their games being snowed out, hah. The Rockies pitching staff has been pretty good in the early going with both Jorge De La Rose and Jhoulys Chacin putting up quality starts in which they did not allow any runs. However, Ubaldo Jimenez has been placed on the 15 day DL after suffering a cracked cuticle during his first start. Not sure how some dead skin at the base of your fingernail effects how you grip the ball, but whatever...a guy that went 15-1 in the first half last year is going to miss his scheduled start against the Pirates, I'll take it.
Pitching Probables:
Thursday, April 7 - Paul Maholm (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Esmil Rogers (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Friday, April 8 - Ross Ohlendorf (0-0, 6.00 ERA) vs. Jorge De La Rosa (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Saturday, April 9 - Charlie Morton (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. Greg Reynolds (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Sunday, April 10 - James McDonald (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Jhoulys Chacin (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Stats and Matchup: The Pirates took 4 of 6 from the Cubs in Wrigley and the Cardinals in Busch on their first road trip and now come home to face the NL West leading Rockies. The Rockies wield a potent lineup from top to bottom with weapons like Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton and Chris Iannetta. Out of all of those guys, the one I am most concerned about is Todd Helton. Now I know what you are saying, "Todd Helton is old and washed up, and CarGo and Tulo are monsters." Well I agree that each of those two are monsters but, the 37 year old Helton is a career .357 hitter against the Pirates with 109 hits in 81 games. So yeah, he is going to get on base. But then again, Tulowitzki has a career .444 average against the Bucs with 44 hits in 26 games, so he too is going to get on base. Basically, our starters can shut down those two guys, I think we have a pretty good shot of winning some ball games. Paul Maholm has the most experience against the Rockies but none of it is particularly good. He is 1-6 with a 7.11 ERA in 8 career starts when facing Colorado. Although that doesn't bode well for his start tomorrow he is 30-23 at PNC Park with a 3.89 ERA and besides he is going to be pitching in front of a capacity crowd (including yours truly) so he should be just fine.
Prediction: The Pirates look to transfer the momentum from their 4-2 road trip to their home opening series against the Rockies. I think that Thursday is going to be a really fun game with a ton of energy both from the team and the sellout crowd. With that being said, I think that the Pirates will be able to win Game 1 again Esmil Rogers as he makes his season debut. Game 2 looks to be a struggle, partly because De La Rosa is good and partly because I just don't trust Ross Ohlendorf yet. He needs to focus on throwing strikes with his fastball so that his other pitches are even moderately effective. Game 3 should be interesting for no other reason than seeing Charlie Morton make his home debut. If he goes out there and pitches lights out, the crowd will go absolutely bonkers. If he struggles, look for a healthy amount of boos and a quick exit for Charlie. Finally, Game 4 will feature the best pitching matchup as long as James McDonald's stamina is where it needs to be so that he can work more effectively and deeper into the game. However, even if he is effective, the Pirates offense is going to have a tough time scoring runs again Chacin who is really coming into his own in this his second season. (Note: I just realized that Chacin was born in 1988. Holy crap he's 21 and has been in the league since he was 19 or 20. That can't be right. Maybe it is. Oh well, he's probably 30 anyways and just faked his birth certificate.) Regardless, he is good and I think that winning the final game of the series will be tough. I say that Pirates take 2 of the first 3 and then will have to fight to win game 4 but in the end will earn no worse that a series split with the Rockies while taking their season record to 6-4.
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