Tonight the Pirates take on the San Diego Padres from PNC Park.

Pitching Match-Up

Pirates
Yoslan Herrera
(0-1) 19.50 ERA with 5 K's this season

Padres
Clay Hensley
(1-0) 0.00 ERA with 3 K's this season

Low-Down
Herrera did ot have a good outing last time against Colorado. His ERA rocketed up to 19.50 after giving up plenty of runs in one inning of work. I think that he will do better at home, and the Padres line-up is not terrific, either, so I see his ERA shooting downwards fast tonight.

Key Factor
Tonight's key factor will be for Herrera to not dig holes for the Pirates offense to climb out of. He needs to get his pitches under control and keep the Padres from getting base-runners. If the Pirates can put some run support up on the board, I think Herrera will play more relaxed and comfortable.

Prediction
Pirates- 8, Padres- 5
I think the Pirates are doing quite good lately for what people give them credit for. Ryan Doumit is doing great the past few games, so I see him being one of the offensive players to watch out for. 8-5 Bucs.

-Mike Greenspire

This is a new post I will be doing as often as I can. It's called Pirates Tonight.

Pittsburgh Pirates @ Colorado Rockies
Tonight 8:05 ET

The Pirates are taking on the defending NL Champions, the Colorado Rockies, tonight from Coors Field in Denver.

Pitching Match-up

Pirates
Yoslan Herrera
(0-0) 12.46 ERA, 4 K's (2nd Major League start in his career)

Rockies
Jorge De LaRosa
(3-5) 7.26 ERA, 60 K's

Low-Down
I think Herrera has a solid chance of being a starter at the beginning of next season. He had a good game about a week or two ago. Despite his high ERA, he pitched a good four innings, and has a wicked fastball that could fool the best of them. I think Yoslan Herrera is good for 5 or 6 innings tonight because of Colorado’s surprisingly weak line-up.

Key Factor
The key factor tonight is Yoslan Herrera. If he has a good outing, which I see happening, than the Pirates just need to get some run support, which is not hard with the line-up they have. Xavier Nady and Jason Bay are the offensive keys tonight and until the trade deadline, because if we hope to get some starting pitching besides that of Paul Maholm, then one of the two needs to be traded.

Prediction
Pirates-7, Rockies-5
I see the Pirates really hitting all over the place in this one. De La Rosa is not a terrific pitcher, and the Pirates tear terrific pitchers apart, so I say Pirates win, 7-5.

-Mike Greenspire