The Pittsburgh Pirates clinched the post-season yesterday. Today they tried to get closer to the goal of winning the top Wild Card spot, or getting closer to winning the NL Central. That didn’t happen, as they lost 6-2 to the Atlanta Braves. However, everyone else lost, meaning the Pirates didn’t lose any ground. Here is an update on all of the races based on tonight’s results.
NL Central
Cubs 3, Cardinals 1
Braves 6, Pirates 2
The Cardinals lost for the second night in a row against the Cubs, keeping the Pirates 1.5 games back in the NL Central. If the Pirates win tomorrow, they would enter the weekend series one game back from the Cardinals. In the event of a tie between the two teams, there would be a tiebreaker held in St. Louis on Monday, with the game being held in St. Louis due to the Cardinals winning the season series.
Wild Card
Braves 6, Pirates 2
Dodgers 9, Giants 1
Brewers 5, Reds 0
The Pirates maintained their one game lead over the Giants. San Francisco continues with a difficult schedule, going up against Andrew Cashner and Ian Kennedy the next two nights. The Brewers haven’t officially been eliminated, but their next loss or the next San Francisco win would result in their elimination. The only way the Giants could take home field advantage would be to win two more games than the Pirates for the remainder of the season.
Playoff Seeding
Here are the current playoff seeds if the season would end today. The winner of the Wild Card game would go on to play the Washington Nationals.
1. Washington
2. Los Angeles
3. St. Louis
4. Pittsburgh
5. San Francisco
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Here’s how I see it playing out:
Pirates over Giants in WC game.
Pirates vs Nats and Cards vs Dodgers in NLDS, with Pirates and Cards advancing.
Pirates get pay back over Cards in NLCS and go to WS to face the Orioles, and we all know what happens when Pirates play Orioles in the World Series!
I love your way of thinking but I don’t see Baltimore coming out of the AL. Despite their huge lead in AL East, I don’t see them as a strong playoff type team. I could be seriously wrong however because Buck Showalter is one heck of a good manager.
Unfortunately it was the “bad” Jeff Locke who took the mound tonight.
BAD Jeff Locke! Get down from there!!!
And really curious decision by Hurdle to bat Locke in the top of the 4th with a runner in scoring position and 2 outs when he clearly didn’t have anything and the game was still within reach. That, plus the “B” team bullpen of Gomez, Wilson, Axford and Pimentel were rested. Of course, he K’d and gave up another 2 runs in the 4th and Hurdle ended up pulling him anyway. It ended up not mattering, but going for the division, I don’t see why you let Locke hit, let alone face the heart of the lineup in the 4th.
Last 7 games:
14 runs (2 per game)
BA .225
OBP .285
SLG .329
OPS .614
K/AB 28.3%
I’ll leave it at that.