Wandy Rodriguez of the Pirates is facing his former team from Houston tonight, but Pittsburgh is reeling so badly right now that even the Astros beat the Bucs last night. Take Houston and Jordan Lyles to upset again Tuesday.
Look for a big upset on Tuesday night when Jordan Lyles and the lowly Houston Astros (42-93 overall, 14-53 away) take on former Astro Wandy Rodriguez and the Pittsburgh Pirates (70-64 overall, 40-27 home) in the second game of a three-game series from PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA at 7:05 ET.
The posted money line at Bodog has Houston as a huge underdog for this contest at current odds of +190.
The young Pirates are still in the wild card chase as they trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 2½ games for the final wild card spot in the National League, but to say this young Cinderella team is wilting under the pressure would be a severe understatement.
The Pirates lost here 5-1 last night to this Houston team that owns the worst record in baseball for the second straight year and Pittsburgh is now 7-17 in its last 24 games. The Pirates seemed to have straightened things out when they won the last two games of a big series vs. those Cardinals last week, but they have since proceeded to lose four straight games, getting swept by the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend prior to last night’s loss.
The Pirates acquired Rodriguez from these Astros before the trading deadline in an attempt to help a pitching staff that pitched extremely well earlier in the year but had begun to wear down from excessive use, particularly in the cases of James McDonald and A.J. Burnett, who pitched like All-Stars during the first half of the year but who have been very ordinary in the second half.
The acquisition made sense too as Rodriguez was 7-9 with a good 3.79 ERA and 1.27 WHIP while pitching for a lousy team. However, he has only gone 2-4 for the Pirates with his ERA and WHIP slipping to 4.12 and 1.42 respectively while donning a Pittsburgh uniform. In fact, he did not get is first win as a Pirates’ starter until his last start vs. the Cardinals, as his previous Pittsburgh win had come in relief in a 19-inning contest.
This will not be his first start vs. his former mates as he faced them in Houston on July 28th, and although Rodriguez met the bare minimum requirement for a Quality Start by allowing three earned runs in six innings that night, he really did not pitch particularly well while allowing six hits plus an alarming five walks.
Now we understand that Lyles is nothing special for Houston at 3-10 with a 5.46 ERA, but he has been better than that lately. Lyles has allowed three runs or less in four of his last five startsincluding allowing two runs or less in three of those outings. He does have a chance to succeed again tonight considering that the Pirates are batting only .234 at home vs. right-handed pitchers over the entire season.
Finally, one must question the psyche of the young Pirates right now. Remember that this is a franchise that has gotten used to finishing in last place over the past decade, so being in the playoff hunt in September is a totally new experience for most of these players.
We hate to use the “choke” word for a team that was not expected to do much, but the fact that Pittsburgh is still just 2½ games out of a playoff spot despite the 7-17 skid suggests they missed a golden opportunity to secure a spot if they could have played just decent baseball.
We saw nothing in the loss here last night to suggest that the Pirates are ready to turn things around, so take the Astros to upset at an enormous price again on Tuesday.
The posted money line at Bodog has Houston as a huge underdog for this contest at current odds of +190.
The young Pirates are still in the wild card chase as they trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 2½ games for the final wild card spot in the National League, but to say this young Cinderella team is wilting under the pressure would be a severe understatement.The Pirates lost here 5-1 last night to this Houston team that owns the worst record in baseball for the second straight year and Pittsburgh is now 7-17 in its last 24 games. The Pirates seemed to have straightened things out when they won the last two games of a big series vs. those Cardinals last week, but they have since proceeded to lose four straight games, getting swept by the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend prior to last night’s loss.
The Pirates acquired Rodriguez from these Astros before the trading deadline in an attempt to help a pitching staff that pitched extremely well earlier in the year but had begun to wear down from excessive use, particularly in the cases of James McDonald and A.J. Burnett, who pitched like All-Stars during the first half of the year but who have been very ordinary in the second half.
The acquisition made sense too as Rodriguez was 7-9 with a good 3.79 ERA and 1.27 WHIP while pitching for a lousy team. However, he has only gone 2-4 for the Pirates with his ERA and WHIP slipping to 4.12 and 1.42 respectively while donning a Pittsburgh uniform. In fact, he did not get is first win as a Pirates’ starter until his last start vs. the Cardinals, as his previous Pittsburgh win had come in relief in a 19-inning contest.
This will not be his first start vs. his former mates as he faced them in Houston on July 28th, and although Rodriguez met the bare minimum requirement for a Quality Start by allowing three earned runs in six innings that night, he really did not pitch particularly well while allowing six hits plus an alarming five walks.
Now we understand that Lyles is nothing special for Houston at 3-10 with a 5.46 ERA, but he has been better than that lately. Lyles has allowed three runs or less in four of his last five startsincluding allowing two runs or less in three of those outings. He does have a chance to succeed again tonight considering that the Pirates are batting only .234 at home vs. right-handed pitchers over the entire season.
Finally, one must question the psyche of the young Pirates right now. Remember that this is a franchise that has gotten used to finishing in last place over the past decade, so being in the playoff hunt in September is a totally new experience for most of these players.
We hate to use the “choke” word for a team that was not expected to do much, but the fact that Pittsburgh is still just 2½ games out of a playoff spot despite the 7-17 skid suggests they missed a golden opportunity to secure a spot if they could have played just decent baseball.
We saw nothing in the loss here last night to suggest that the Pirates are ready to turn things around, so take the Astros to upset at an enormous price again on Tuesday.
Astros +190 ---
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