Series Thread: Pirates vs Cardinals

[Darkstone42]

Talk about a stress-free inning for Melancon. Wow.

 

[Burgh Sports Rule]

I like the choice. We have a decent lead and a deep bullpen. Perhaps Hurdle wants Cole to be able to go in Game 5, or at least have that option, so he pulled him.

Darkstone, wouldn't Cole be working on full rest if he were the choice for Gm 5 anyway?

Off Day Tom. Gm 3 Sun, Gm 4 Mon, Off Day Tuesday, Gm 5 Wednesday ( Cole )

Still makes no sense to me.

Burgh

 

[sychmd]

i would go with morton in game 4. burnett and the cards is just a bad matchup.
putting burnett against LA or Atl would be a better match for him with a lot more swing and miss and less selective hackers.

 

[sychmd]

does melancon get a bonus for only throwing 7 pitches ..... and all strikes.

wow, if he is back to setup mark or early 2013, we are sitting pretty.
grilli back to 95 a few times today again. havent seen that since he isback.

with wilson and watson working the rest of the 6th when starter needs help and the 7th, a decent start and we have a good chance of winning.

they are resilient these buccos are.

imagine the thunderdome known as PNC with liriano on the mound and opportunity to take a 2-1 series lead. if only marte could lead off with a single, SB and cutch jacks one!!!!!

 

[Etrius24]

Nice to see Melancon look great and Grilli hitting mid 90's

Two really good signs.

 

[Etrius24]

The Win is of course another great indicator of how things are going

 

[Darkstone42]

Darkstone, wouldn't Cole be working on full rest if he were the choice for Gm 5 anyway?

Off Day Tom. Gm 3 Sun, Gm 4 Mon, Off Day Tuesday, Gm 5 Wednesday ( Cole )

Still makes no sense to me.

Burgh

I didn't realize there was a day off. Even so, with our bullpen, I have no problem with the move.

 

[steelparrot]

Cant wait to watch the rest of the game, even if I know the outcome

Game 3 is going to be huge.

 

[steelparrot]

Cards defense showing their UZR numbers are accurate.

I think our defense, esp our outfield defense is our biggest advantage in the series.

 

[Burgh Sports Rule]

I didn't realize there was a day off. Even so, with our bullpen, I have no problem with the move.

Normally, I would have no problem with the move either.

I believe in our BP, as much as anybody & that's exactly why I don't understand why we can use the BP for Cole today, when Cole was absolutely dealing.

Yet, Hurdle sits on his hands with a fully rested BP yesterday, when AJ had absolutely nothing & was getting shelled, & effectively took us out of the gm by the 3rd inning, by leaving AJ in.

It worked out. We got the split in St. Louis. However, you cannot throw away a playoff gm, as Hurdle did yesterday, with the decisions that he made.

Doing the reverse today, when you were getting a Lights Out pitching performance from Gerrit Cole, is a head scratcher to me.

Just my thoughts.

Burgh

 

[Darkstone42]

I think Hurdles going to be a lot quicker to pull starters for the rest of the postseason. I think he really just wanted AJ to get out of it himself. Obviously that didn't happen, but he may have just been trying to show confidence in the leader of his staff, even when he's off.

 

[Etrius24]

I agree

Hurdle has to be quicker to pull a starter... The one advantage we have in spades over other teams is depth in the rotation... We are sitting here talking about whether or not Morton will get used in the series... We have extra arms... Hurdle needs to use them if necessary. For example if AJ only threw say 30 pitches and the damage was only a few runs they still have a chance to win that game... and because he barely pitched he could maybe come back and throw on 3 days rest or even come out of the bullpen on the week-end.

They got the split and the Bucs get to have Liriano pitch at home...So it is looking decent for them..

 

[Illinest]

I think cole has surpassed all other pitchers already. I think cole was taken out of the game early because they are planning to have him ready for game 5.

It would be better for us if we win our home games behind liriano and morton.
Then assuming us against dodgers:
In that event we can line burnett up against kershaw. The kershaw game 1 has got loss written all over it but burnett's got such filthy stuff when he's on that he's got a chance of outdueling kershaw. It would allow us to throw cole out in game 2, then morton and liriano in games 3 and 4 at home. Burnett in game 5, cole 6, liriano 7.

But really the team does at least need to take care of business first.

 

[sychmd]

hopefully atlanta pushes LA to 5 and they play some extra inning extravaganzas and press their pitching and BP.
we would only have to see kershaw in game 3 and 7.
if we win in 6, we only see kershaw once.
it will be kershaw angainst liriano in game 3 at PNC. so kershaw might go 0-1 and we get to beat their other guys. grienke (1,5), ryu(2,6), nolasco(4).

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

hopefully atlanta pushes LA to 5 and they play some extra inning extravaganzas and press their pitching and BP.
we would only have to see kershaw in game 3 and 7.
if we win in 6, we only see kershaw once.
it will be kershaw angainst liriano in game 3 at PNC. so kershaw might go 0-1 and we get to beat their other guys. grienke (1,5), ryu(2,6), nolasco(4).

No we need to end this series quickly to rest the guys up & get Ethier ready for the next round

 

[Darkstone42]

The crowd sounds fantastic right now.

 

[HammerDown]

I'm about to state the obvious. It's really, really important that the Pirates win today.

 

[Darkstone42]

Wide strike zone I see.

 

[Darkstone42]

Carpenter can't hold up, and there's one out after the strikeout.

 

[Darkstone42]

I think I read one of these umpires has a strike zone which is shifted toward third base. This might be the guy.

Nice play there by Alvarez.