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Pirates and Brewers battle in Free Game of the Day
In baseball, there are very few certainties from season to season. One thing that’s held strong though regardless of the standing of the two franchises involved is the Milwaukee Brewers dominance against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Miller Park.
The numbers are stunning. Since 2007, the Pirates have gone 19-64 in Milwaukee, and that’s counting their wins there on Thursday and Friday. That’s a .228 winning percentage, which quite honestly doesn’t even make sense.
Perhaps the Pirates struggles have gone beyond baseball into the paranormal. It’s long been said that the Pfister Hotel, where opposing teams stay in Milwaukee, is haunted. It’s possible those spirits have it out for the Pirates more so than any other team and have rented space in their heads.
After all, manager Clint Hurdle revealed this week that he once had a player summon him to his room because his television mysteriously switched on twice.
“He assured me there is ghost who turned his TV on twice during the night,” Hurdle said. “I had him come into my room — not to sleep, but to settle him down. I went back with him to his room and sat with him a while. The TV didn’t come back on, so I exited and everything was OK.”
It’s also possible the Pirates have done a little too much thinking while in Milwaukee.
Whatever the case, the two teams are in the midst of another four-game series at Miller Park this weekend and the Pirates are holding their own so far. They won 3-2 in 10 innings on Thursday, before taking a 5-3 win Friday thanks to Jordy Mercer’s grand slam. Game three comes Saturday night and will be featured as the MLB Free Game of the Day on Yahoo Sports. You can stream the game at Yahoo’s Sports Home, MLB index and video home beginning at 7:10 p.m. ET
At 65-61, Pittsburgh is 16 1/2 games back in the division. That’s not even a consideration. We could have crowned the Chicago Cubs in July and it wouldn’t have been too soon. That means the best Pittsburgh can hope for is a fourth straight wild-card game. That’s still in play, as they enter Saturday 2 1/2 games behind St. Louis for the second spot.
You can see how the Miller Park situation plays into that. The Pirates still have one more trip to Milwaukee in September too. They’ll play three there to wrap up an 11-game road trip that includes four game series against Philadelphia and Cincinnati. If there was ever a time to make up ground, that stretch would be it. But it might not matter if Pittsburgh doesn’t finish this weekend strong.
Every game is precious to them now. Even if curses don’t exist, history does. The Pirates can’t afford to let that history define them. Instead, it’s up to them to change its course and make Miller Park a home away from home.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
