The chase for October
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Today’s Pirates stories from the Post-Gazette:
Locke leads Pirates in 3-1 win over Cubs
Pirates notebook: Reliever Grilli moves closer to accustomed role
Last night
Cardinals lost to the Brewers 5-3
Reds were off
Nationals beat the Mets 3-0
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Standings
NL Central standings
- Pirates 85-61 --
- St. Louis 84-61 –
- Cincinnati 83-64 – 2.5 GB
Wild Card standings
- Pirates 85-61 -- + 2.5
- St. Louis 84-61 – +2.5
- Cincinnati 83-64 – 2.5 GB
- Washington 77-69 – 5.5 GB
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Magic number to get a playoff spot: 9
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Relevant ink from around the NL:
On the Cards
Kelly, Cardinals' a little bit off
DeWitt: I feel very good about our team
On the Nationals
Nationals unhappy after Frank Francisco hits Jason Werth
Hot hitting Nationals sweep Mets to win sixth straight
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Thought of the day: Andrew McCutchen deserves those MVP chants
PITTSBURGH – The crowd roared into M-V-P chants Thursday night in the top of the seventh inning, when Andrew McCutchen made a spectacular diving catch to glove a hard liner by Junior Lake just before it hit the grass.
Certainly he’s done many, many things this season to deserve being a frontrunner in that conversation, but something Marlon Byrd said after the game struck.
He said with a guy like McCutchen in center field: “It lets the pitchers just throw the ball in the zone, and the defense take care of it.”
Sure, that might sound obvious, but think of how many games get away through the course of a 162 game season on a ball that drops there and turns into a double?
The ground McCutchen covers alone puts him in elite company, and with his numbers at the plate those chants are likely to get louder.
Of course earlier in the fourth inning, he doubled and scored to tie the game on a Byrd single.
It will be really interesting to see where this goes for him this season.
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Tweet of the day: From MLB.com writer Jennifer Langosch, Twitter handle: @LangoschMLB
@LangoschMLB Over the last 27 days, the #STLCards and #Pirates have not been separated by more than two games in the NL Central. Now, they're tied.
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First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:12 p.m.
