October baseball has arrived. First treat of the post season comes in the form of the Reds vs Pirates at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
The one-game winner advances, Wild Card game is in it’s sophomore year, and so far so good. The round is cutthroat, succinct and the Pirates 11-8 regular season edge means nothing. Whichever team comes more prepared to play advances to the NLDS.
The Pirates have waited 20 years to reach this point, and they’re making sure to have all their ducks in a row to lengthen their stay.
The Reds will have Johnny Cueto on the mound, Cueto has had his share of injury setbacks this season but when healthy he’s nothing but dominant. Cueto has a 2.82 ERA in 11 starts and 51 strikeouts.
For the Pirates, veteran Francisco Lirano will take to the mound. Lirano had an amazing season, a 16-8 record with an ERA just above 3, with 163 strikeouts. All that is great news, until you take in account Lirano’s considerable struggles against the Reds, he’s gone 0-3 against them this season with a 3.70 ERA. Lirano at home though can be arguably unhittable, as he’s left players dazed in confused limiting them to an .174 average.
The edge pitching wise may boil down to a battle of bullpen supremacy with the Reds taking a slight edge with Aroldis Chapman. Chapman has 38 saves, compared to Pirates closer Jason Grilli who has 33 and a slightly higher ERA.
When examining the team’s lineups top to bottom there’s some standouts position by position. First base edge in particular pits Joey Votto vs Justin Morneau–advantage Reds. In the outfield there’s McCutchen vs Shin-Soo Choo, advantage Pirates. The team’s match up pretty evenly offensively top to bottom.
When it comes down to the bare facts this is not a long best of seven series, this is one game, one opportunity, one shot to advance. The Pirates have simply been the hotter team, and they’re not far removed from a sweep of the Reds in Cincinnati. This is a team–dare I say, of destiny. They didn’t come into the post season with the intention of placing a toe in the proverbial playoff waters. They came for the long haul.
Prediction: Pirates defeat the Reds 6-3