The vibe around the Pirates going into Wednesday’s wildcard game is this:
They’re built to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in a five game series in the divisional round but not equipped to beat Jake Arrieta and the Cubs Wednesday night.
If the Pirates can find a way to get past Arrieta, they have as good of a chance as anybody to represent the National League in the World Series.
And the same argument can be made with the Cubs. If they get past the Pirates it’s easy to picture them getting by the Cardinals and Dodgers/or Mets in the Championship series.
Last year the representatives in the World Series were both teams who came out of the Wild Card game.
For the Pirates hope of being the first team in months to put a dent into Arrieta, they continue to bank on they’ve seen him enough that it’s going to be an advantage on Wednesday night.
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BENCH PLAYERS VS ARRIETA
Josh Harrison, 1-10
Michael Morse, 2-9, 2B
Travis Snider, 1-5
Sean Rodriguez, 0-0
Agreed Zack… Best of luck to you guys.
Go Cubs.
But if the Pirates win, I hope they win the whole thing. Should be a good game.
All that being said… I want to make this one point before the game, so that if the Pirates lose, nobody can say I feel this way because of that.
This is absolutely unfair to both teams. Both teams deserve better than a 1 game playoff….. Hated Cubs or not. There are seasons where no playoff team has 98 and 97 wins respectfully. To tell them you now earned a 1 game playoff with that….. Is total B.S!! Baseball needs to go to a seed system. Let LA and NY play to get in.
Yes, but the crowd just getting loud wont work… He’s pitched in that before and he can turn that into his advantage…… Now, the crowd getting loud BECAUSE he’s struggling…. He can’t handle that! THAT will get in his head, and then it’s ball game! The fact that Arrieta is responding to Pirate fans on twitter, shows that you can get in his head. He puts on a good face but under the surface is a major drama queen. Now that said…. Just like last game we faced him… You get only one shot… You don’t take advantage… You might… Read more »
Flat out….. The Pirates have a mental block when it comes to aces…. They appear to elevate them to figures larger than life and by doing so physc themselves out. That said…. There is absolutely a receipt to beating Arrieta. He’s cocky, he’s arrogant, he’s overly confident…. All characteristics that any ace needs to be an ace…. But can also be their downfall. I live in Frederick Md, 35 miles from Baltimore and if there is one thing certain about Arrieta….. He’s a hell of a lot of mental. Things start to turn bad for him, he unravels. You get… Read more »
Hopefully the crowd can get to him if that’s the case.
Jaydogg would appreciate the length of this post.
I’m pretty unsure about this, but just remember Cueto has dominated the Pirates basically in every game except the WC one.