Predicting The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Final Homestand Of The Season

Aug 20, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) delivers a pitch against the Atlanta Braves during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

At the time of this writing, the Pittsburgh Pirates find themselves with a 76-69 record, which is three games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL Central lead, but 1.5 games ahead of the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild card spot.

From Friday, Sept. 12 through Sunday, Sept. 21, the Pirates will host their last regular season home games at PNC Park. Thus far in the season, the Pirates are 44-28 at home. With the playoffs in the balance, each game becomes more important, so why not have a little fun and predict the outcome of each game?

Friday September 12 Chicago Cubs 64-82 [Tsuyoshi Wada 4-2 2.95 ERA] vs Pittsburgh Pirates 76-69 [Gerrit Cole 8-5 3.89 ERA] 7:05 p.m.

Something to consider is that Gerrit Cole is accustomed to pitching against the Cubs being a divisional rival. In almost two seasons with the Pirates, Cole has a 4-0 record in four appearances against the Cubs. In 25 innings, Cole has allowed nine earned runs against them. Cole won his last start, which was against this same Cubs team at Wrigley Field allowing three runs in six innings. This despite allowing nine hits which ties for the season high. Cole’s off-speed pitches continue to improve and this game should be no different. Wada is a bit of an unknown in that of the current players on the Pirates roster, only 13 at-bats have been taken. It should be noted that Wada pitched September 5th against the Pirates but left after 3.1 innings with an apparent injury. With this in mind, I believe the Pirates take this game.

Final score Pirates 5 Cubs 3
WP- Cole [9-5]
LP- Wada [4-3]