Pittsburgh Pirates Will Ruin Marty’s Party Tonight

The three-game series that opens tonight at 7:10pm is the biggest the Pirates have played since the early 90’s. Yeh, there were some battles by the Freak Show back in 1997, but that team can’t compare to the squad donning the black jerseys with the Gold P on the left chest tonight.

Cincinnati wiped out San Diego yesterday 9-4 and immediately started talking about the Pirates.

"“I think it’s good for both of us,” right fielder Jay Bruce said. “Those guys are as relevant as you can be. They’re not going anywhere. We’re going to have to play good baseball. We’ve been doing great. We’re just going to have to play the way we’ve been playing.“I think we believe we’re the better team. I think they believe they’re the better team. That’s why we play.”"

The victory over the Friars was the third straight for the Redlegs, their 13th in 14 games, and yeh, it keeps going, their 20th win in the past 23 games played.

As you’ve heard relentlessly over the past week, the Reds are on top.  They’ve earned it, going 14-3 without their star player.  They have opened up a 3 1/2 game gap on the Pirates in the NL Central who have won 11 of their last 15. Wandy Rodriguez has pitched rather well against the Reds. The Bucs are counting on him tonight.

Wandy has done well against the Reds – especially Brandon Phillips, but he’s not playing tonight.  He has sucked against Joey Votto, but he’s not playing tonight either.

So to Jay Bruce and your .069 average against Wandy, we say all that winning shit will end tonight.

And then Marty gets his head shaved.  Nothing like spoiling Marty’s Party.  A Marte Partay is always more fun anyway.