The Pirates will visit the Baltimore Orioles this upcoming series and will hope to improve their famously bad play in American League ballparks as they will give Camden Yards a try this time around. The Orioles are eight games over .500 at 34-26 and in third place in the AL East. The Orioles record is not a true assessment to the kind of team that they are, because they are much worse then the average team who is 8 games over .500. The Orioles got off to hot start but have been tailing off lately totaling in at a 5-5 record in their last ten. The Pirates shouldn't have a tough time winning this series if they play as well as they have in their past fifteen in which they have gone 12-3 the best record in the MLB for that time frame.
Game 1- This match-up really confuses me on behalf of the Pirates because they will be sending Brad Lincoln to the hill for his second straight spot start. Lincoln did not have the results he wanted to last time out as he filled in for Charlie Morton. The Pirates could of easily made the move to bring up Jeff Locke or Rudy Owens to make one quick start but they choose to go in my opinion the wrong route and decided to start Lincoln instead. Lincoln will oppose Wei-Yin Chen who is 5-2 with a 3.49 ERA. None of the Pirates on the roster have ever face Chen so it might take a trip through the line-up before they start to get to Chen but hopefully it won't be to long.
Game 2- In game 2 of the three game set the Pirates will Send Kevin Correia to the hill, by far the worst out of the five starters if you ask me. Correia is just 2-5 this year with a 4.29 ERA and I think an American League team like the Orioles will jump on him fairly easily and this will turn out to be a tough one to win for the Pirates. If Correia goes five or six innings the Pirates will stand a chance but if not the Pirates do not have the offense to come back from a bunch of runs down. The Orioles will throw Brian Matusz who is 5-6 with a 4.82 ERA so far this season.
Game 3- Erik Bedard will get the call in game 3 and he has looked to be his old self so far this year posting a 4-6 record with a 3.59 ERA. Bedard has been phenomenal this year but has struggled with his control at times. If Bedard wants to have a chance to get the win in this one he must keep the walks under control because if he doesn't the Orioles will make him pay.
I would be very happy with two out of three in this one and if my wish comes true it would be the clubs sixth straight series victory. As mentioned before the Pirates are traditionally very bad in inter-league play and even worse when they play inter-league on the road. The good thing is that the Pirates are on a four game win streak and do not show any signs of slowing up. It will be interesting to see how the Pirates respond after taking over first place on Sunday.
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