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Red-hot Pirates face Giants on Tuesday
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 8/16/2016  at  10:42:00 AM
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PITTSBURGH PIRATES (60-56)

at SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (66-52)

First pitch: Tuesday, 10:15 p.m. ET
Line: Pittsburgh +105, San Francisco -115, Total: 7.5

The Pirates will be looking to win their third straight game when they face the Giants in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh has come on strong recently, as the team has now won seven of its past 10 games. The Pirates are now only one game back in the NL Wild Card race and this team is surely thinking that it is going to be playing some postseason baseball this year. Another road win over a good Giants team would be a major boost in confidence as well. San Francisco, meanwhile, is really struggling and has now lost eight of its past 13 games coming into this one. The Giants likely aren’t in danger of losing their postseason spot, but they are getting cold at the wrong time and need to turn things around soon. The starters in this game are going to be RHP Jameson Taillon (3-2, 2.85 ERA, 47 K) for the Pirates and RHP Jeff Samardzija (10-8, 4.23 ERA, 107 K) for the Giants. It’s worth noting that Pittsburgh is an impressive 47-17 against the money line against NL West opponents over the past two seasons. C Buster Posey (Back) is questionable for San Francisco in this one.

Jameson Taillon will be on the mound for Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and he has been unbelievable for the team this season. Taillon’s last start was actually the best of his young career, as he pitched eight innings of shutout baseball against the Padres on Aug. 11. One thing that is big for him is that he avoids leaving pitches too high in the zone. He has had games where he has allowed two or more homers and he can’t afford to let the ball leave the park too often against this Giants team. Offensively, OF Andrew McCutchen (.243, 16 HR, 49 RBI) is the guy to watch for Pittsburgh in this one. McCutchen seems to slowly be regaining his form, as he has seen his average rise from .240 to .243 over the past 10 games and has racked up five RBI over the past four games as well. If he can start to creep closer to the .292 average that he has hit in his career over the remainder of the season then this Pirates team could be extremely dangerous come playoff time.

The Giants will be hoping to end their recent struggles on Tuesday and Jeff Samardzija is the guy that will need to give them a good outing. Samardzija is coming off of a very good performance against the Marlins, allowing no earned runs in 5.2 innings of work. It came after a stretch of four straight games where the righty allowed at least four earned runs apiece, so perhaps the meeting with Miami was the confidence boost he needed. He did, however, get lit up the last time he faced the Pirates, allowing six earned runs in three innings of work on Jun. 22. If C Buster Posey (.288, 12 HR, 54 RBI) doesn’t play in this one then the Giants will need some others to provide Samardzija the run support he’ll need. One guy that has been swinging the bat well for San Francisco is 3B Eduardo Nunez (.287, 13 HR, 50 RBI). Nunez is 3-for-9 with a homer and three runs scored over the past two games. He has been solid since coming to the Giants and they can use some extra base hits out of him in the remainder of this series. SS Brandon Crawford (.270, 11 HR, 71 RBI) must also come through for his team. Since going 7-for-8 in an extra inning game against Miami on Aug 8, Crawford is just 3-for-23 at the plate. The team needs him to step it up and snap out of this slump.


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