By Dave Holcomb
Since the second half of the season started just a mere week and a half ago, baseball fans have seen Tampa Bay visit Boston and New York, the Yankees and Orioles at Fenway, and Texas hosting Baltimore and then travelling to Cleveland, but the most anticipated and biggest series of the first four months of 2013 takes place this week.
In a city that’s used to its football team having the front-page at the end of July, Pittsburgh will host St. Louis it what should be considered the biggest series in PNC Park history.
The Cardinals and Pirates will face off five times in four days, and if that wasn’t enough, it spans over the trade deadline, which means each team could look very different in the last game than the first. The two teams still play one another nine more times this season, but this series will set the tone for the games going forward.
Pittsburgh comes into Monday’s game 1.5 games behind St. Louis for the National League Central lead.
Neither team has looked very sharp as of late; Pittsburgh lost two out of three to lowly Miami while St. Louis was swept by Atlanta. Cincinnati also had a rough weekend getting swept in Los Angeles, so the standings stayed virtually the same. With the Pirates and Cardinals playing five games, Pittsburgh could fall as far back as 6.5 behind St. Louis if the Cardinals win all five, or take a 3.5 game lead if they sweep.
Pitching matchups seem a little less important as in five games, each team will see the other’s entire rotation. Monday’s probables are Jake Westbrook (7-4) and Francisco Lirano (10-4). Pittsburgh has won five of Lirano’s last six starts as he has given up more than two runs just once. Westbrook has won his last two starts as well.
Tuesday is scheduled to be a double header with the probable pitching matchups being Tyler Lyons (2-3) vs. A.J. Burnett (4-7) and Lance Lynn (12-5) vs. Jeanmar Gomez (2-0).
Rookie sensation Jeff Locke (9-3) will face Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright (13-6) on Wednesday, and rookie Joe Kelly (1-3) will square off against the Pirates’ Charlie Morton (3-2) on Thursday.
Of course, that all could change if either team makes a trade for a starting pitcher.
Pittsburgh is currently going with a six man rotation to limit Locke and fellow rookie Gerrit Cole’s innings, so the Cardinals will not see Cole who pitched Sunday.
The Pirates have the season series lead over the Cardinals at 3-2. The two teams will play each other as many times this week as they have during the entire rest of the season.
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