The Pirates are eleven games over .500 and at top of their division to start the second half, where they will face the Brewers in a three game set. The Pirates have traditionally struggled in Miller Park the past few years but did win a weekend set there earlier this year, so hopefully their bad luck at that stadium has run out. I would love to see the Pirates win this series for one big reason being that it's the first series back since the All-Star break so it would be nice for them to show that the four day break didn't effect them at all, and that their are going to go right back to work.
Game 1- Since its the first game back from the All-Star break and all you would expect a pretty good pitching match-up because of the four day break giving all of the pitchers a chance to rest up, and that's exactly what we have. James McDonald will take the mound for your buccos, entering this one with a 9-3 record and a 2.37 ERA, he has been outstanding this year to say the least. McDonald will face the best the Brewers have to offer with Zack Greinke who currently has a 9-2 record with a 3.32 ERA. Greinke's name has been floating around as a trade piece recently because of the Brewers lack of success this year, and the Pirates name had even been in that talk for some time. An interesting note on Greinke is that if he does end up starting today's game he will tie a major league record for most consecutive games started for one team at three a record that has not been achieved since 1917. This can happen because Greinke started the second to last game before the All-Star break for the Brewers but was ejected after just four pitches because he spiked the ball against the ground. Since Greinke had only thrown four pitches the Brewers decided to start him the next day as well, and then because of the long break he had rested enough to start again today, a kind of interesting and pretty cool record for the right-hander to talk about.
Game 2- In game two of three Kevin Correia will pitch for the Pirates entering with a 5-6 record and 4.34 ERA. Do not think that in any case the reason Correia is starting the second game back means that he is the second best pitcher in the rotation because that is in no way shape or form the case. I'm frankly not exactly sure why Correia is the second pitcher in the second half rotation my guess guess would be its because they didn't want to stack the top of the rotation and they wanted to spread out their better pitchers, but who knows for sure. Marco Estrada is expected to get the start for Milwaukee on Saturday as he enters the game with a 0-3 record 4.06 ERA, note that these numbers are slightly better as a starter but possibly due to a small sample size because he has only appeared in nine games this year at the major league level. Estrada doesn't especially impress me, I think he is a middle of the rotation guy at best. I think the Pirates will have there chance to win this one with the long ball, something they have been pretty good at this year and Estrada has not been quite as good at. The key will be to have runners on base for these bombs though because Estrada does have a particularly good WHIP at 1.02.
Game 3- In the final game of this series the Pirates will throw A.J. Burnett, the sure number two of the staff. Burnett has been having his best year since 2005 and will enter game three of the series with a 10-2 record and 3.68 ERA. Burnett is a veteran so I am not expecting any fall off for him in the second half if anything I expect him to get better because he has been in pennant races before therefore he will know exactly how to handle it. For the Brewers they will try to get past the Bucs with Yovani Gallardo on the hill who currently has a 7-6 record with a 3.74 ERA. For what its worth I think that Gallardo has potential to be a absolutely great pitcher but has not done it this year. Most of the time when you see pitchers with great stuff and only okay numbers it means that they are start to start. What I mean by this is that Gallardo could go out there and go just two innings and give up eight runs or he could go out there and throw nine scoreless innings you're just never quite sure what you're getting out of him. I think this game will be interesting, hopefully the Bucs can pull it off.
This is an important series for the Pirates because I think that it can set the tone for the whole second half, plus if you win the series you might put Milwaukee out of the picture for the rest of the year. The biggest thing I am looking forward to seeing in this series is if the offense continues its dominance from the past month in a half or if we go straight back to forgetting how to hit, I personally think it will be somewhere in-between but hey what do I know?
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