Colorado @ Pittsburgh preview
PNC Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 5, 2010 ) Colorado 1, Pittsburgh 5
The Pittsburgh Pirates have had nothing to play for in months - and they are doing their best to make sure the Colorado Rockies know exactly what that feels like.
Despite owning the National League's worst record at 38-70, the Pirates are putting a serious dent in the Rockies' hopes of making the postseason.
Pittsburgh continued to torment Colorado in the opener of a four-game series Thursday night, getting a strong pitching performance from James McDonald to beat the Rockies for the third time in the last 10 days.
McDonald was the least likely candidate to come up with a gem. It was just his sixth career major league start, although half of them have come against Colorado.
About the only solace for the Rockies was that NL wild-card leader San Francisco also lost, leaving Colorado 5 1/2 games behind the Giants.
However, the Rockies also trail Philadelphia and St. Louis in the wild-card chase, so they need to turn the tables in a hurry on the Pirates, who have won three of four meetings between the clubs this season.
Right-hander Jason Hammel, who starts Friday's game at PNC Park, will have to reverse his own recent slide to help get Colorado back on track.
Hammel is 0-3 in his last four stars and is coming off a no-decision in his last outing, when he was charged with four runs on six hits in 7 1/3 innings in a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
He'll need to find a way to solve Pirates first baseman Garrett Jones, who is batting .500 (8-for-16) with three homers and six RBIs against the Rockies this season.
Jones entered Thursday's game mired in an 0-for-20 drought and had just one hit since Pittsburgh took two of three in Colorado from July 27-29.
But he set the tone with a second-inning home run to open the scoring Thursday as the Pirates won for just the second time in the last eight games.
The Rockies need to get their offense untracked as they continued to struggle away from Coors Field. Troy Tulowitzki had three of Colorado’s seven hits on Thursday, giving him 10 hits and nine RBIs in 31 at-bats over his last eight games.
Still, Thursday’s loss marked the eight times in the past 12 road games that the Rockies have scored two runs or fewer.
Left-hander Zach Duke (5-10) will start for the Pirates tonight. After recording back-to-back victories, Duke labored in his last outing, lasting just five innings and surrendering six runs on seven hits in a 9-1 loss to St. Louis.
Prior to that start, Duke turned in a strong outing in a 4-2 win over the Rockies, going six innings and yielding two runs on three hits.