June 2, 2012: Milwaukee, WI, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Erik Bedard (45) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

The Royals aren’t the worst hitting team in the league, however they aren’t very opportunistic. They have scored just 217 runs on the year, which is sixth to last in the league despite having the ninth best team batting average of .261. They are fifth to last in the league with 43 home runs. They don’t have much trouble hitting singles but extra base hits are an issue for them.

Billy Butler is the offensive leader of this team. He’s hitting .296/.355/.507 on the season with a team high 11 home runs. The rest of the offense is young and inconsistent. Eric Hosmer was supposed to do some big things this year but he’s hitting just .220/.281/.376. Mike Moustakas has done okay with a .278/.345/.497 line and 9 home runs, but they aren’t getting much from anybody else. Jeff Francoeur has played a bit better than you may have expected, but there’s not much here to be worried about offensively.

The pitching has been the Royals main problem this year. They have the tenth worst ERA in the big leagues with a mark of 4.17. Ten different players have made starts for them, which shows you how inconsistent there main guys have been. The Pirates will see Luke Hochevar, Vin Mazzaro, and Bruce Chen this weekend. Let’s take a look at those three specifically.

Friday’s matchup is Hochevar against Erik Bedard. The Pirates lefty hasn’t been great lately, but you still have to have a good amount of confidence in him any time he takes the hill. Hochevar on the other hand has been bad all season. He has a 6.63 ERA and there really hasn’t much of a trend to that this year. It’s been above 6 since the first start he made in May when he gave up nine earned runs to the Tigers. He is a decent strikeout pitcher with 7.3 K/9 but he can get a bit wild at the same time with 3.3 BB/9. Patience is an order for the Pirates offense tonight. He allows 10.6 hits per nine, so you have to feel good about the Pirates scoring some runs tonight (as good as you can possibly feel about such a thing). There’s little doubt the pitching edge goes to the home team tonight.

Saturday is a bit more of an unknown. Vin Mazzaro has only made two starts for the Royals this year and did a pretty good job in both of them. First he went 5 innings against the Rangers allowing just three runs and his last start on June 3rd, he pitched six scoreless innings against the Athletics (a very weak offense). He doesn’t strike guys out, he has just 5 in 12 innings this year. Last year he posted an 8.26 ERA in 28.1 innings for the Roayls, striking out 3.2 per nine and walking 4.8. Those numbers are horrid, and it should exude some confidence in the Pirates offense tomorrow night. Seriously. It also helps that the Bucs are throwing out ace James McDonald. If there’s one game you should expect the Pirates to win this weekend, it’s Saturday night – especially because it’s fireworks/concert night, and they always seem to win on those nights.

The final game of the series features Bruce Chen and A.J. Burnett. Chen has a 4.37 ERA in 12 starts this year. He has been striking out 6.2 per nine and walking just 1.9, so those numbers are pretty good. He’s a veteran who knows how to pitch, but he’s pretty hittable with a 9.3 H/9 ratio this year. He has the ability to go out and throw a really good game, and the lack of seriously threatening bats in the lineup could help him post one of those games Sunday, but you shouldn’t bet on it. A.J. Burnett has been a horse for the Pirates all year but he has been inefficient lately. He pitched just five innings with 100 pitches last time out and had another 5.1 inning effort two starts prior to that. He’s thrown over 100 pitches his last five times out but again, he hasn’t allowed many runs. The Pirates shouldn’t need to do too much offensively to win this one, which is always encouraging.

You can certainly pencil in the Pirates as the favorite for all three games of this series. It’s very hard to win three games in a row regardless of who you are playing, but I’d say the Pirates have a good shot at doing it this weekend and pushing their record the whole way to 32-27 – which would be huge before hitting the road to go to Baltimore and Cleveland.

May 21, 2012: Milwaukee, WI, USA; The racing sausages race during the game between the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. The Giants defeated the Brewers 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

The Pirates are headed to Miller park, where they haven’t had any success at all in recent years. Since 2007, the Pirates are 4-38 in Milwaukee. That’s unreal.

Things are a bit different recently though. The Brewers are without Prince Fielder and just aren’t a very good baseball team. They are coming off a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which could mean they are heating up just in time to face their favorite team, but this season as a whole hasn’t been good for the Brew Crew. They are 23-28 and 2.5 games behind the Pirates.

Ryan Braun is having another really good season, although he’s not the MVP he was last year. He is hitting .309/.395/.608 with 14 bombs and 10 stolen bases. That’s a guy you have to be extremely careful with. Without the protection of Fielder behind him, the Pirates should be able to choose their battles carefully. Rickie Weeks has been bad this season hitting .158/.292/.294; they are getting little out of Mat Gamel at first with a line of .246/.293/.348 with just one home run, and Corey Hart has also left much to be desired despite hitting 10 home runs. One of the Brewers best bats has been Jonathan Lucroy, the catcher hitting .345/.387/.583 with five home runs. However, he’s on the DL and the Pirates won’t have to see him.

Despite those numbers the Brewers are still scoring 4.4 runs per game. The real problem is the pitching. They’re allowing 4.7 runs per game. The guys the Pirates will see this weekend don’t exactly scare you. Let’s take a look at those matchups.

Friday: Kevin Correia (1-5, 4.30) vs. Randy Wolf (2-4, 5.73)
Correia’s numbers aren’t great but he has made two solid starts in a row for the Pirates. He’s always a threat to get hit around, but you have to feel okay about him at this point. Randy Wolf has been brutal this year. He’s made a couple decent starts in his last two against the Giants and Diamondbacks. He went seven innings and gave up three to the Giants and went 5.2 giving up three runs to the D’Backs. Opposing hitters are hitting .313 off of him with six home runs. While nothing is easy for the Pirates these days, this could be a guy they could get well against.

Saturday: Erik Bedard (3-5, 3.12) vs. Shaun Marcum (3-3, 3.63)
This is the pitcher’s duel of the series. Both of these guys have been good this year. Marcum got roughed up two starts ago but bounced back nicely with seven strong innings against the Dodgers allowing just one run. He has allowed more than one run in every start but three, and often times that’s all the Pirates need. Hitters are hitting .236 off of him this year. Righties have actually been better than lefties against him, but it hasn’t been easy for anyone. He’s given up six home runs which is about average and he has a decent K/BB ration of 2.76, the Pirates will have to get a good start out of Bedard because you can’t see them scoring more than a couple off Marcum.

Sunday: James McDonald (4-2, 2.20) vs. Michael Fiers (1-0, 1.29)
This is the Pirates best chance to win with McDonald on the mound. J-Mac has been the closest thing to an ace as the Pirates have had in years and he’s on pace to be on the all-star team right now. He’s coming off his best outing of the year, shutting out the Reds for 8 innings. Michael Fiers is a rookie who has made just one start this year, and it was a good one. He went 7 innings and gave up just one run to the Dodgers on May 29. He struck out just three and walked one. Fiers is 27 years old so it’s not like he’s some impact prospect. I can’t see this guy being a dominant starter in the league, if he had that capability you’d think he would’ve been up sooner. He owns a 2.80 career minor league ERA with 9.6 K/9, so he definitely has some decent stuff. We’ll see what he has Sunday, but until you see more of him you have to give the advantage to McDonald.

The Brewers are as bad as we’ve seen them in quite some time. Dare I say it, the Pirates have a very good chance to win a series in Miller Park. Obviously you shouldn’t predict that with just how poor they have played in Milwaukee in the past, but this is a new team for the most part and the opponent isn’t nearly as good as before. It should be a fun one. Right now the Pirates have winning records against every division team except the Cardinals, and they can add to the Brewers to that list with a couple of wins this weekend.