This. Is. Huge.
Tomorrow the Pirates start their biggest and most important series of baseball since the day I was born. Wow. They will play the Cincinnati Reds who are a full three games up on the Pirates in the division and are coming off of a four game series win against San Diego. Luckily for the Pirates they are coming into this series fresh because of Thursday's off day allowing them to start A.J. Burnett on Sunday instead of the previously scheduled Erik Bedard.
Game1- In the opening game of this series the Pirates will send the newly acquired Wandy Rodriguez to the hill to make his Pirates NL Central Debut against the Reds right hander Mat Latos. Latos is a perfect example of why record is completely meaningless as he come in with a 9-3 record but an ERA as high as 4.17. Rodriguez will enter this one with a 7-9 record and a 3.79 ERA, It will be important for Rodriguez to hold the Reds to preferably under three runs in this one since the Reds offense has been one of the best in the league this past month.
Game 2- James McDonald (10-5, 3.37) has been struggling as of late really starting to decline, in his past three starts he has a solid 9.00 ERA but somehow squeezed out a win in one of those three games. McDonald has been good against the Reds so far this year however only giving up one run in just over fourteen innings. McDonald will take the hill against the Reds Mike Leake, the man who skipped the minors. Leake well he isn't that great, and he really sucked in his last outing not even making it two innings, the Pirates can only hope that his struggles continue against them. This is probably the best chance the Pirates have as far as pitching match-ups go, and they do have a chance in every game.
Game 3- The Pirates originally scheduled to have Erik Bedard start the series finally but then decided that because of the Thursday off day that it would be a better idea to start the better pitcher in A.J. Burnett because of the importance of the series. Burnett as you might know is 13-3 with a 3.27 ERA and is having one of his best years since he left the Marlins in 2004. Homer Bailey will take the bump for the Reds as he enters this one with a strong 9-6 record and 3.85 ERA. Bailey is basically as advertised nothing real special but has solid stuff with good command, I am not a fan of hitter-pitcher numbers but Garret Jones has some pretty good numbers against Bailey I would not be surprised if he has a good game on Sunday. But all in all I think that the pitching match-ups in this series favor the Pirates for sure.
"Defy odds. We won't let history define our future. Our actions will do the talking. Our determination will turn doubters into believers." -Andrew McCutchen
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