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The Pirates have the worst overall record in baseball and the worst road record at 5-22. The Indians swept them in Pittsburgh by a cumulative score of 14-4. On paper this should be an easy series, but that's not necessarily the case. Timing is everything.
The Pirates are coming off three straight wins against the Cubs (at home, however) so winning this series would at least send them into the off-season on a positive note and take a little of the sting out of being the worst team in baseball. Cleveland.com had this in its series preview:
Heading into Thursday’s game against the Cubs, Pittsburgh starting pitchers have posted a 1.80 ERA in their last nine games.
They shut out the Cubs last night so that number is now something like 1.50 in their last ten games. This could be another series featuring close, low-scoring games. On to the pitching matchups...
1. Cookie v. Mitch Keller, 24, RHP, 1-1, 3.24 in four starts. Keller threw six no-hit, no-run innings in his last start against the Cardinals. Right-handed hitters are batting .077 agianst him but lefties are at .241/.939 and we'll stack the lineup with seven lefties most likely.
2. Civale v. Joe Musgrove, 27, RHP, 0-5, 4.68 in seven starts. Musgrove dominated the Cardinals in his last start with a line of 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 11 K's. However, his ERA on the road is 7.71. Civale threw a complete game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh, allowing one run.
3. Undecided (maybe Quantrill) v. JT Brubaker, 26, RHP, 1-3, 4.46. Brubaker has allowed three earned runs in his last two starts with a line of 12 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 13 K's. The Indians got to him for three runs in three innings in Pittsburgh.
So all three Pirate starters in this series are pitching well at the moment. Their offense is another story. They've scored 35 runs in their last 14 games. They have a rookie second baseman named Ke'Bryan Hayes who is hitting .329/.998 in 73 AB's. Their best full-time player offensively is 1B Collin Moran at .255/.812. Josh Bell is having a lost season at .223/.670. Nobody else is over .670 OPS except catcher Jacob Stallings at .721. The Pirates scored four runs in three games against the Indians in Pittsburgh and they may not do better than that this weekend.
At this point we don't really know if it's to our advantage to sweep this series or not. The Twins are 23-5 at home and won the season series 7-3 so I don't think we want to play the Twins in the first round. If we fail to overtake Chicago and end up with the #7 seed playing the Twins seems likely. But if Chicago sweeps the slumping Cubs this weekend and Minnesota loses the White Sox could end up with the #2 seed and we'd probably be happy to be #7.
The best approach is probably to try and sweep the Pirates and hope the White Sox lose a game which would put us #4 and hosting the Yankees, who have lost 4 of 5 to Boston and Toronto, allowing 40 runs in those five games.
Carlos Santana had two home runs and eight RBI's in the three-game series against the Pirates. He's 4-for-35 in his last 10 games so maybe he can get going a little in this series.
The Pirates are coming off three straight wins against the Cubs (at home, however) so winning this series would at least send them into the off-season on a positive note and take a little of the sting out of being the worst team in baseball. Cleveland.com had this in its series preview:
Heading into Thursday’s game against the Cubs, Pittsburgh starting pitchers have posted a 1.80 ERA in their last nine games.
They shut out the Cubs last night so that number is now something like 1.50 in their last ten games. This could be another series featuring close, low-scoring games. On to the pitching matchups...
1. Cookie v. Mitch Keller, 24, RHP, 1-1, 3.24 in four starts. Keller threw six no-hit, no-run innings in his last start against the Cardinals. Right-handed hitters are batting .077 agianst him but lefties are at .241/.939 and we'll stack the lineup with seven lefties most likely.
2. Civale v. Joe Musgrove, 27, RHP, 0-5, 4.68 in seven starts. Musgrove dominated the Cardinals in his last start with a line of 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 11 K's. However, his ERA on the road is 7.71. Civale threw a complete game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh, allowing one run.
3. Undecided (maybe Quantrill) v. JT Brubaker, 26, RHP, 1-3, 4.46. Brubaker has allowed three earned runs in his last two starts with a line of 12 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 13 K's. The Indians got to him for three runs in three innings in Pittsburgh.
So all three Pirate starters in this series are pitching well at the moment. Their offense is another story. They've scored 35 runs in their last 14 games. They have a rookie second baseman named Ke'Bryan Hayes who is hitting .329/.998 in 73 AB's. Their best full-time player offensively is 1B Collin Moran at .255/.812. Josh Bell is having a lost season at .223/.670. Nobody else is over .670 OPS except catcher Jacob Stallings at .721. The Pirates scored four runs in three games against the Indians in Pittsburgh and they may not do better than that this weekend.
At this point we don't really know if it's to our advantage to sweep this series or not. The Twins are 23-5 at home and won the season series 7-3 so I don't think we want to play the Twins in the first round. If we fail to overtake Chicago and end up with the #7 seed playing the Twins seems likely. But if Chicago sweeps the slumping Cubs this weekend and Minnesota loses the White Sox could end up with the #2 seed and we'd probably be happy to be #7.
The best approach is probably to try and sweep the Pirates and hope the White Sox lose a game which would put us #4 and hosting the Yankees, who have lost 4 of 5 to Boston and Toronto, allowing 40 runs in those five games.
Carlos Santana had two home runs and eight RBI's in the three-game series against the Pirates. He's 4-for-35 in his last 10 games so maybe he can get going a little in this series.
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