Pittsburgh Pirates (11-14, 4th in the NL Central)
2011 Record vs. Colorado: 1-3
Last Series vs. Rockies: April 7-10, 2011 (L 1-3 at PNC Park)
The Pirates were able to steal a victory from the Rockies in the second game of the series, pretty much entirely because of Jose Tabata. First, he ended a pretty long string of dominance by Jorge De La Rosa by blasting a home run to centerfield. Then, he doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 14th. Despite racking up five hits (including a couple of homers), Tabata and the Pirates couldn't stop the Rockies from taking the other three games. No other Pirate had more than three hits in the series - though the two catchers, Ryan Doumit and Jason Jaramillo (who is no longer with the big league club), combined for six.
On the mound, the Pirates weren't all that effective aside from a very strong relief effort by now-starter Jeff Karstens, who went 3.1 scoreless innings in game two in relief of Ross Ohlendorf, who left in the third inning with an injury. Karstens struck out five batters (although he did allow five baserunners). I'm sure the Rockies and their fans are thrilled they won't likely see him in the upcoming series - on the mound and in general. In the finale, the Rox were finally able to get to James McDonald (five runs on six hits and three walks in 6.2 innings), who had experienced tremendous success against them prior to then.
Latest Series Results: W 2-1 vs. Washington, L 1-2 vs. San Francisco
Neil Walker has hit the ball very well over the past couple of series (11 for his last 24 at the plate), but just about everybody else on the team has been colder than a witch's you-know-what. Still, don't sleep on Andrew McCutchen (who I'd like to see wait a few days before inevitably figuring things out) or Jose Tabata (.976 career OPS vs. Colorado).
Even with the struggling offense, the Bucs have held serve over the past week due to strong pitching (2.29 combined ERA). That may change this weekend, however, as their staff has a tendency to walk a lot of batters and, outside of McDonald, are mostly pitch-to-contact guys. There are some good arms in the bullpen, though, with Joel Hanrahan, Chris Resop and especially Jose Veras (14.4 K/9) all posting above-average strikeout rates in a fairly significant amount of work.
See what the Pirates' SBN community, Bucs Dugout, has to say about the upcoming series.
Pitching matchups and other pertinent information after the jump...
Friday through Sunday: 3-game series at Coors Field
Expected Pitching Matchups
Friday, April 29, 2011 @ 6:40 PM MT
Saturday, April 30, 2011 @ 6:10 PM MT
Sunday, May 1, 2011 @ 1:10 PM MT
Expected Lineup
| Player | Pos | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ |
HR | RBI |
| Andrew McCutchen | CF | .202 | .317 | .348 | .298 | 82 | 3 | 10 |
| Jose Tabata | LF | .255 | .349 | .404 | .353 | 118 | 3 | 6 |
| Lyle Overbay | 1B | .244 | .337 | .337 | .309 | 89 | 1 | 11 |
| Neil Walker | 2B | .305 | .377 | .463 | .375 | 132 | 3 | 14 |
| Garrett Jones | RF | .250 | .375 | .467 | .373 | 131 | 4 | 6 |
| Chris Snyder | C | .323 | .371 | .387 | .337 | 108 | 0 | 8 |
| Pedro Alvarez | 3B | .202 | .264 | .286 | .254 | 54 | 1 | 7 |
| Brandon Wood | SS | .160 | .222 | .240 | .194 | 18 | 0 | 2 |
Bench
| Player | Pos | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ |
HR | RBI |
| Ryan Doumit | C | .255 | .300 | .383 | .293 | 79 | 1 | 5 |
| Ronny Cedeno | SS | .179 | .216 | .224 | .184 | 9 | 0 | 6 |
| Steve Pearce | Util | .292 | .346 | .333 | .309 | 90 | 0 | 2 |
| Matt Diaz | OF | .222 | .255 | .267 | .242 | 46 | 0 | 4 |
|
Xavier Paul |
OF | .250 | .250 | .250 | .223 | 42 | 0 | 0 |