It's Time

It's here. It's actually here. The Pittsburgh Pirates will play a playoff game at PNC Park tomorrow. It's a very surreal thought. Twenty years of playoff absence is about to be erased. 162 games of joy, depression, thrills, and heartbreak all comes down to this.  On Tuesday, October 1st, 2013, the Pirates will host the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card game at PNC Park.  It's all or nothing, winner take all, must-see baseball.  No players will be resting to prepare for future games. It's all hands on deck.

Pirate ace Francisco Liriano starts for the home team.  Liriano sports an amazing 1.47 earned run average when playing in Pittsburgh.  He works well against lefties, too, which is a large asset considering Cincinnati's Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Shin Soo Choo are all left handed.  Liriano started a game against the Reds nine days ago at PNC Park, and he turned in a fantastic performance with two earned runs, nine strikeouts, and eight innings pitched.

The Reds are sending Johnny Cueto to the mound to try to spoil the Pirates' fun.  This is a daunting development, considering Cueto's history of being very, very good pitching at PNC Park.  However, there is reason for optimism.  Cueto has spent much of this season on the DL, and is only two starts removed from his last injury.  Those two starts came against the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs. In other words, he has yet to be tested by a winning lineup.  Andrew McCutchen has three home runs off of Cueto, however only bats .189 against him.  That shouldn't be too much of a concern, because, well, it's Andrew McCutchen.  One important note is that Marlon Byrd, acquired by the Pirates at the end of August, has terrific career numbers against Cueto (Cueto has not faced the Bucs since Byrd's arrival).  Cueto's health concerns, combined with a bolstered lineup for the Pirates makes me sweat a bit less over the pitching matchup.

It can not be understated how important home field advantage is in this game.  Let's remember, it's the first playoff game in nearly twenty-one years, and the first ever at PNC Park.  Tickets for the game sold out in minutes, and stubhub.com has standing room only tickets listed at over $150.  The players, led by Andrew McCutchen and Michael McKenry, launched a Twitter campaign calling for fans to wear black to the game, to create a unified atmosphere.  You can expect an excitable, Jolly Roger waving, unprecedentedly loud 40,000+ on hand tomorrow night.  You can bet the team will feed off of that.

Let's Go Bucs.