After a thrilling three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies, including two walk-off wins, the Pirates embark on their only road trip in the pacific time zone this year. The Pirates will battle with the Los Angeles Dodgers, before heading to San Francisco and Arizona to wrap up their nine-game road trip. Starting off the season, the Pirates faced two former Cy Young winners in their first two games in Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. In their first game against the Dodgers today, the Pirates will make it three Cy Young winners in their first four games, something that doesn’t occur often in baseball. This time, the Pirates have the daunting task of facing last year’s National League Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw.
The southpaw Kershaw posted a 21-5 record with 2.28 ERA and a minuscule .98 WHIP. The 24-year-old Kershaw was limited to three innings in the Dodgers opener after an illness forced Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly to pull the hard-throwing left-hander. Squaring off against Kershaw for the Pirates will be 2011 all-star Kevin Correia. Correia will be making his first start of the season, and possibly one of his last. Check for more on that in my three things to watch for.
Sticking with his early season rotation, Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle will have Jose Tabata leadoff, followed by Alex Presley. Against right-handers Halladay and Worley, the two were flip-flopped. It seems Hurdle is going with matchups in the early part of the season. Continuing the trend with matchups, Hurdle is once again sitting Pedro Alvarez, who hit his first home run of the season in Sunday’s finale, against the talented left-hander. Casey McGehee will get the start at third base and Matt Hague will get his second career start at first base over Garrett Jones.
Some teams prefer to get their west coast trips out of the way early, while others prefer to save them for later in the season. For Hurdle, it makes no difference.
“It’s no never mind to us, this is where the schedule takes us,” Hurdle said. “I don’t have a preference.”
Three things to watch:
1) Kevin Correia – With Charlie Morton eligible to come of the DL on the 13th, and with A.J. Burnett expected to be up with the big league club before month’s end, Correia looks like the odd-man out in the rotation. Correia received the most run support on the club last season and put together a good first half of the year, but fell flat in the second half of the season. If Correia is able to put together two or three decent starts before Burnett returns, he will increase his value as a trade candidate.
2) The defense – The Pirates defensive woes were overshadowed by the walk-off hit by McCutchen on Sunday afternoon. Jones and McGehee both made mental mistakes at first and Alvarez committed a throwing error at third. Against a pitcher like Kershaw, the Pirates have to be fundamentally sound.
3) Yamaico Navarro/Josh Harrison – With the lineups changing due to matchups, neither Navarro or Harrison have cracked the starting lineup for the Pirates. Both have played well so far in their limited time in pinch-hitting appearances and Navarro especially has displayed great patience, earning two walks in his two plate appearances.
Pirates (2-1) vs. Phillies (3-1)
Kevin Correia (0-0) vs. Clayton Kershaw (0-0)
First pitch 4:10 p.m. ET
Pirates lineup:
Tabata – 9
Presley – 7
McCutchen – 8
McGehee – 5
Hague – 3
Walker – 4
Barajas – 2
Barmes – 6
Correia – 1
Dodgers lineup:
Gordon – 6
Ellis – 4
Kemp – 8
Ethier – 9
Rivera – 7
Loney – 3
Uribe – 5
Ellis – 2
Kershaw – 1
Photo credits: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Discussion about this post