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Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The Pittsburgh Pirates were officially eliminated from NL Central contention with their series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The goal of avoiding the one game playoff was lost, but there was still work to be done entering the final series of the regular season.
The Cubs are on an unreal winning streak, so the Pirates needed to win the series to clinch home field for the NL Wildcard game. Against a struggling Reds team, it should be fairly easy but the Reds have given the Pirates a ton of fits in 2015, which is completely mind boggling, but that’s baseball. The only thing the Pirates needed to do was win the series, nothing more, nothing less.
They sent their filthy left hander to the mound for game one, looking to kick things off the right way.
Next: Game One: Liriano vs. Sampson