Red Sox vs. Pirates | Series Preview

When the 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates schedule was announced, the series at PNC Park against the Red Sox was probably the most highlighted one on the calendar. 74 games have come and gone and now it's time for the 3 huge ones against one of the best teams in the game. It's hard to argue that anybody is playing better than the Boston Red Sox right now, which gives this series even more appeal.

The last time the Pirates played the Red Sox was in 2005. The teams played a 3-game weekend set in Fenway from June 17th through the 19th. The Pirates took a game from the Sox on Saturday by winning 2-0 on the back of Dave Williams, who pitched 6 scoreless innings. Tim Wakefield one-upped him however and went 7 scoreless innings, but the Pirates got a run in the 8th of Alan Embree and that's all they would need as Rick White and Jose Mesa teamed up to complete the shut out.

The Pirates are sitting at 37-37 and have generated quite a buzz in Pittsburgh this year. It would be pretty wild to hear the Pirates talk around Pittsburgh if the Pirates would find a way to win this series. Here are the pitching probables for this series:

Friday: Jon Lester (9-3, 3.70) vs. Paul Maholm (3-8, 3.29)
Saturday:Tim Wakefield (4-2, 4.26) vs. Jeff Karstens (4-4, 2.54)
Sunday: Andrew Miller (0-0, 4.76) vs. James McDonald (5-4, 4.86)

The Red Sox have some interesting decisions to make every time they play in a National League park. David Ortiz is the face of their team and has been on fire this year (.313/.391/.977 with 17 homers and 48 RBI), but doesn't play defense well at all. However, the Red Sox don't want to hold his bat out of the lineup for long. This is the first of 3 straight NL series for the Sox, and there is no way that they will bench Ortiz for 9 straight games, so I would expect him to see starting at first in at least one of these games. With that said, their lineup looks something like this:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez, RF
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. David Ortiz, 1B
6. J.D. Drew, LF
7. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
8. Marco Scutaro, SS
9. Pitcher

A ridiculously stacked lineup. The Pirates are going to have pitch extremely well if they hope to win any of these 3 games.

Regardless of the outcome, it's going to be a heck of a weekend at the ballpark. Friday and Saturday night are almost sure to be sold out, and I have a feeling the record the Pirates set earlier this year for largest crowd in PNC Park history will be broken Saturday night. If you can find a ticket, get down here and check out your hometown Pittsburgh Pirates facing one of the most storied franchises in all of sports.