Tonight, the Pirates begin a stretch of six games in which they play NL Central playoff contenders and it starts in Milwaukee for a three-game set against the first place Brewers, who lead the Bucs by six games in the division.
While most have counted the Pirates out of the division race, manager Clint Hurdle and Co. remain confident they can still contend with the Brewers and NL Wild Card leading Cardinals.
“I know this, you win your division and you’re in and that’s where I’m going to stay until that’s not in play anymore,” said Hurdle.
The 25 men on the roster also buy in to the same thought process despite coming off of a seven-game losing skid that helped the Brewers create some distance. They believe that if they take things one game at a time, they can bring themselves back into the race. Even at a ballpark where they are 1-5 at this season and 13-53 since 2007.
“We play for the now,” said Gaby Sanchez. “We play for today. We’re not looking toward anything else. Now, it’s on to the next game against the Brewers then after that, it’s the next game. We’re taking it a game at a time and we’re not trying to get ahead of ourselves because if you do that, you start putting pressure on and we don’t want to do that.”
If the Pirates are able to escape Milwaukee with a couple of victories, they then come home to face the Wild Card leading Cardinals, who lead the Bucs by 4 1/2 games, for a three-game series. The opportunities are there for the taking. The question remains, can the Pirates return to the team that gained 5 1/2 games between May 1 and June 1 or will they continue on the downward slope that has put them in this position over the last week.
They do have a healthy Andrew McCutchen and Jordy Mercer back in the lineup while Gerrit Cole showed everyone on Wednesday that he is back to his old self. If these three can return to their pre-injury forms, the Pirates may have a shot to get back in the hunt.
We will start to find out tonight at 8:10 pm from the “House-of-Horrors”.
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(Photo Credit: Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
