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Welcome to Total Pittsburgh Sports. I give my opinions on, analyze, and discuss all things related to the Penguins, Pirates, and Steelers. Hope you enjoy, and comment your thoughts!

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Monday, September 30, 2013

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.


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pitching For The Playoffs

It's September 19th, and we're still watching Pirates games intently, and checking out of town scores almost as intently. That's new. The Pirates currently sit one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central Division, and two games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates and Reds will face off in a crucial three game series that kicks off Friday night at PNC Park.  How did we get to be in this position? The same way we've achieved anything in the past three years: quality pitching.

Before we dive into playoff pitching scenarios, I should mention that the Pirates can clinch a playoff berth as soon as Saturday.  In order to miss the playoffs, the Washington Nationals would need to make up a six game deficit over a nine game span. It simply won't happen. Your Pirates are going to play playoff ball.

There has been much debate about what the starting rotation should be going into the playoffs.  People have been swayed by recent performances, overall track records, and veteran experience. Here's what I think the rotation should be.

Game 1 (or Wild Card Game) -- Francisco Liriano RHP
Liriano has been the Pirates' obvious staff ace this season.  After missing the first month of the season, Frankie has posted sixteen wins and a solid 2.92 earned run average. That ERA would be a lot lower if it weren't for a couple bad outings. Ignore those two poor starts, and we're looking at an ERA under 2. Liriano has two complete games under his belt this season, and has seemed to always be able to dominate division rival St. Louis.  Above all, Liriano has served as a stopper.  A stopper is a pitcher who steps in in the midst of a slump and, as manager Clint Hurdle would say, "puts his foot down". This season, Frankie has done this countless times. He's your obvious game one starter.

Game 2 -- Gerrit Cole  RHP
This would've seemed a bit unrealistic about six weeks ago.  Since the end of August and throughout September, Cole has been dominating opponents.  This run of success started on August 28th against the Milwaukee Brewers, and has continued through today.  That stretch has seen Cole evolve from a rookie with a blistering fastball into a true, jam-getting-out-of, can't-be-rattled, strikeout pitcher.  Last week Cole went up against Texas' Yu Darvish, and showed him up by pitching eight scoreless innings with nine strikeouts (the Pirates would get the 1-0 win).  And today, in a game vs. the San Diego Padres, he turned in his best start yet.  Over six innings, he struck out a whopping twelve batters (out of 18 outs he created, 66% were K's).  He got out in front of batters, and looked completely in control.  I give the ball to him in game two.

Game 3-- Charlie Morton RHP
After returning from Tommy John's surgery in June, Morton has looked better than ever before.  He has posted a 7-4 record, and 3.35 ERA.  Those numbers aren't eye popping, but his pitching of late certainly has been.  He has continued his heavy use of the sinker to induce ground balls, and it has been working outstandingly.  He has also greatly inproved his curveball, which has increased his strikeout totals.  When healthy, Charlie is nasty.  Hard not to go to him for game #3

Game 4-- AJ Burnett RHP
After being the staff ace last year, you may have expected AJ to be higher on this list.  This season hasn't been a poor one by any means for him.  He has been playing far better than his 8-11 record suggests, and his 3.43 ERA proves it.  He is a veteran capable of getting out of the toughest jams, and there are few games I wouldn't trust him with.  I admit, it feels odd having him at #4.  However, given what the other three have been doing lately, I had no choice.

Over the next nine days the Pirates will battle.  They have their eyes set on the division title, avoiding the dreaded one game wild card playoff. Whatever happens, we have the pitching to win games. Should be a fun ride.


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Pirates Have Freed Themselves

This has been a season full of special moments for Pirates fans. There was Gerrit Cole's exciting debut in June. We saw an amazing five Pirates go to the All Star Game.  Russell Martin has four walkoff hits on the year, which has only added to his amazing season at catcher.  Who could forget that thrilling five game series against St. Louis at the end of July at PNC Park, which saw the Pirates assert themselves as a baseball superpower, taking the first four from the shellshocked Cardinals.  None of these fun moments, however, could compare to what happened last night in Milwaukee.

It wasn't so much the way we won the game that made it so special. That's not to say that Gerrit Cole's superb six IP and Travis Snider's go-ahead homer in the ninth inning weren't impressive.  The reason last night's win mean so much is that it was the Buccos' 81st win of the season. For those that don't know, that means that the win guaranteed that the Pirates will not have a losing season.  That's right, the nightmare is over. The longest losing streak in American pro sports history is over.  It started in 1992 with that slide by Sid Bream, and it was punctuated last year when Homer Bailey no-hit the Bucs in Pittsburgh to guarantee their 20th consecutive losing season.  Between those two dates, Pirate fans had to put up with a lot.

There were countless blown draft picks: Selecting reliever Daniel Moskos over Matt Weiters (Who now plays catcher for the Baltimore Orioles) is a striking example.  There were so many trades that saw star players leave the team.  The prospects that did find their way into the Pirates' farm system were woefully mismanaged.  The team was controversial in its use of Navy Seal training tactics on their players, which ultimately caused players and prospects to avoid signing with the Pirates. All of this combined for a nightmarish 20 years of losing.

But that's all over. We're free. Last year, we couldn't celebrate the progress of the team because we still had the losing streak hanging over us, casting its shadow. Now that it has been vanquished, this team can accomplish anything.  They currently sit two games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in first place in the NL Central Division.  It's September 4th, and the playoff chase is on. Fans celebrated last night's win, as they should have, but the players didn't dare.  They have one goal this year: Win the World Series. And with twenty years of losing lifted off their backs, they can fight to the end and maybe even bring it home. 

In honor of it being fun to be a Pirates fan right now, here's this: