Pittsburgh Pirates series preview: Detroit Tigers

The Pittsburgh Pirates are coming off of their first series win of the year to pull their season record to 2-4. They look to continue to steer the ship in the right direction as they welcome the Detroit Tigers to PNC Park for a three game slate.

Probable Pitching Match-ups
Monday, 1:35 pm – Gerrit Cole/RHP (0-0, 5.40 ERA) v. Anibal Sanchez/RHP (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Tuesday, 7:10 pm – A.J. Burnett/RHP (0-0 3.38) v. Shane Greene/RHP (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Wednesday, 7:05 pm – Francisco Liriano/LHP (0-0, 2.57 ERA) v. Alfredo Simon/RHP (1-0, 5.06 ERA)

Comments on Pitching Match-ups

Perhaps the biggest edge in the pitching matchups comes from a pitcher who won’t make an appearance. Perennial Cy Young candidate David Price will not pitch against the Pirates in this series, thus giving a slight edge to the Bucs.

Of particular note is Cole, who will be looking to rebound from a somewhat-shaky start as he takes the mound for the first home game of the year behind a sure-to-be-raucous PNC Park crowd. Home cooking seems to sit well with Cole, who is 5-1 with a 3.39 ERA at PNC (69 IP/26 ER) in 11 starts, and 3-0 in his last five.

Of the three Tigers pitchers the Bucs will face, they have the added benefit of previously seeing Simon during his time with the division-rival Cincinnati Reds. However, it may not do them much good as the club struggles to get to Simon, posting a .240/.338/.355 slashline against him, with only eight extra-base hits in 140 plate appearances.

More from Rum Bunter

Offensively, the Pirates will look to continue to make strides. Despite a lingering knee issue, Andrew McCutchen continues his power surge, and Neil walker and Pedro Alvarez have had productive starts to the season thus far. The players to watch during this series will be Josh Harrison and Starling Marte. Both are struggling out of the gate, and in Marte’s case, he has seemingly reverted to the free-swinging Marte of the first half of 2014, striking out twelve times in 22 at-bats thus far in 2015. Better plate discipline will be needed if he is to be kept in the number five spot in the order.

Harrison has scuffled since a 2-for-4 performance on Opening Day against the Reds, going only 1-for-15 since. One could point to his .BABIP as the culprit, coming in at .253 (his .BABIP for his breakout 2014 was .353). It will be interesting to see how long it might take for Clint Hurdle to shuffle his lineup, but I don’t think we’ll see any major changes in this series.

A word from the enemy
I spoke to Dave Holcomb, editor for the Detroit Tigers FanSided site ‘Motor City Bengals’ about some keys to the Tigers. Here now is our exchange:

The Pirates luckily will avoid David price during this series. What can we expect to see from the starters the Bucs will face?
Pirates fans should expect to see some tough pitching from Anibal Sanchez on Monday. He threw 6 2/3 shutout innings versus the Twins last week and looked really sharp. The other two projected starters, Shane Greene and Alfredo Simon, were question marks heading into the season, but they pitched well in their first regular season starts. Greene, actually, was outstanding, pitching eight innings and allowing only one run. Simon also threw well, but seemed to tire in his final inning of work, giving up five straight hits before exiting. Simon will want to build upon that and finish the sixth inning versus the Pirates.

What will the Tigers NL-park lineup look like? Who sits?
Manager Brad Ausmus announced on Saturday that Victor Martinez would sit and be strictly used as a pinch hitter at PNC Park. It’s not worth risking Martinez’s health this early in the season.

How can the Pirates pitch to Miggy and V-mart effectively?
The Pirates catch a big break that they will likely only face V. Martinez once per game in this series. As far as pitching to Cabrera, your guess is as good as mine. The guy is on fire. He went 11-for-14 with a pair of home runs and six RBI in the weekend series against the Indians. He slashed .520/.586/.840 in the first week.

My guess is Pittsburgh will do their best to pitch around him although that will be difficult with the way the entire Tigers offense is swinging the bat right now.

Series Prediction – The Tigers are 6-0 on the young season, and firing on all cylinders offensively. The reduced impact of Martinez and the favorable pitching matchups work to the Bucs’ favor, on paper at least, and I expct the Pirates to walk away with another series win, 2-1.

Next: Pirates pour it on late vs Brewers

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