Better Luck Next Year

Pittsburgh Pirates fans are going to have to wait another year to see if their team can win a championship. The Pirates season ended on Wednesday with an 8 to 0 shellacking put on them by Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants  

For all the buzz, hype, and excitement in and around the city of Pittsburgh for the Pirates wild card game, they sure turned in a dud of a performance for the largest crowd in PNC Park history, along with everybody watching on television. The game stayed competitive for the first 3 innings, but then in the top of the 4th, Giants' shortstop Brandon Crawford delivered a gut-wrenching blow to the Pirates when he took Edinson Volquez deep over the Clemente Wall in right field for a two-strike grand slam. That was it for the Pirates. The Giants tacked on a few more runs over the remainder of the game to take it 8 to 0, sending the Pirates home for the winter.

A definite positive to take from this season for Pirate fans is that they have now recorded winning records and made it to the postseason for 2 consecutive years, after a North American Sports record 20 straight losing seasons from 1992 to 2012. So it seems the Pirates have made the jump and are here to stay when it comes to being competitive. 

So one question remains... Where do they go from here? The Bucs are heading into a very tough off-season where some of their key contributors from the 2014 seasons will be becoming free agents.

1. Catcher - Russell Martin
2. Shortstop - Clint Barmes
3. Pitcher - Edinson Volquez
4. Pitcher - Francisco Liriano

The Pirates off-season is going to be extremely important, as well as interesting, and definitely one to pay attention to over the next few months. It will be exiting to see what happens.

Buctober Is Here

October is upon us, and for sports fans everywhere that means one thing, playoff baseball. For Pittsburgh Pirate fans, the wait is over, and game day is finally here. The Pirates play the San Francisco Giants in a loser goes home elimination game Wednesday night at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Just like in 2013, tonight will be another black-out at PNC Park
photo cred: pittsburghpirates.com

The Pirates will be sending 31 year old right-hander Edison Volquez (13-7, 3.07) to the mound tonight to oppose Ginats' ace, 25 year old southpaw Madison Bumgarner (18-10, 2.98). With two pitchers of this caliber going tonight, a low scoring affair can be expected. To beat the Giants and advance to the National League Division Series, the Pirates are going to need Volquez to continue what he has been doing the last 3+ months of the season. Since June 23rd, Volquez has won 9 games while only losing 1 and holding an earned run average of only 1.85, which was good enough for the second lowest in the National League during that span.

So Volquez is definitley the key for the Pirates on the defensive side of the game, but who is going to step up at the plate for the Bucs tonight?



Pittsburgh Pirates star Andrew McCutchen
photo cred: pittsburgpirates.com

The obvious answer to that question is guys like Andrew McCutchen, Russell Martin, and Josh Harrison, who are all going to need to play well in order for the Piraes to advance, but I believe the game is going to come down to something like an Ike Davis long at-bat working the count for an important walk, or a Jordy Mercer clutch 2 out RBI knock.


In a perfect world Edison Volquez goes 7 innings tonight while allowing 1 or 2 runs, hands the ball over to All-Star Tony Watson in the 8th, and then Melancon to close the door for the save in the 9th, but this is postseason baseball and anything can happen. That's the beauty of it though, anyone can be the hero. The only thing that is certain is that it will be fun to watch.

***Prediction

 

Pirates over Giants 4 to 2