Pirates Notes Before a St. Louis Showdown

• Monster series going on this weekend in St. Louis as the Pirates try to fend off the Cardinals who are gunning to take their wild card spot. Right now the Braves have a strong four game hold on the first wild card spot, and the Pirates are holding off the Giants and Cardinals by one game. The Bucs didn't help their chances by dropping three of four to the Dodgers, but they can't dwell on that. They got a nice win on Thursday and really have to show up for this series.
  
• After Garrett Jones two homer game on Thursday in which he drove in six runs on two swings, he's hitting .313/.349/.603 since May 26th, which was pretty much right when the Pirates started asserting themselves as a playoff contender. For the season, Jones is hittnig .283/.316/.542, which is well beyond what anybody expected from him. He's quietly been one of the best hitting first baseman in the league, I'd say he's about as underrated a player as the Pirates have seen in quite some time.
• The three pitchers the Cardinals are throwing at the Pirates are Jake Westbrook (12-8, 3.62), Lance Lynn (13-5, 3.65), and Jaime Garcia (3-4, 4.48). Pretty solid numbers there from Westbrook and Lynn, but the Pirates have had some success in the past against those guys, so as far as I'm concerned these are three very winnable games. That's all assuming the pitching improves, the Cardinals strength is their offense and you know they're going to show up ready to play at home against a legitimate opponent.
• It's been since Monday August 6th that the Pirates have allowed less than five runs in a game. That's ten games allowing an average of 7.2 runs per game. You aren't going to win in St. Louis doing that.
• Jameson Taillon was promoted to AA today and will start for the Curve on Tuesday. Good to hear that he's finally done what he needed to to get the call. We knew all along that it would take a bit longer for Taillon since he became a professional right after high school, but he stayed in Bradenton for longer than I would have liked to see. I'm sure the Pirates know what they're doing, and there's a small chance that Taillon wears a Pirate uniform next year, but I wouldn't be surprised for him to start in AA and finish in AAA. Only time will tell, we just now have to hope that he avoids injury.
• Speaking of prospect injury, remember Josh Bell? He's missed much more time than we initially expected, and he's still not 100%. You can pretty much write this one down as a lost year of development, which is very unfortunate. He's another kid that came straight out of high school, so he's got a lot of time to grow, but it's never good to lose a year for one of your top prospects.