This Team, This Town...Needs Tonight

The Scene of the Crime Tonight 

The Pittsburgh Pirates made the flight from Pittsburgh to St. Louis, which by my calculations would be around a 2 hr flight, but for the Pirates it probably felt like an eternity. After letting a golden opportunity slip through their fingers on Monday afternoon, the Pirates now have an elimination game to play.  I am not going to dive into details yet, that will be coming later today, but as I drove to work this morning I thought to myself "This team, this town...hell I need this game tonight."

Granted, if the Pirates were to lose this game, no one would call this season a failure.  After all, we all laughed at Clint Hurdle's "95 wins" estimation before the season, and this team nearly delivered on that for their skipper.  No one expected them to make the post season, let alone get a wild card birth, beat the Reds in the wild card game, and take the Cardinals to the breaking point.  No one thought this would happen, but when all of that DID happen, something changed.  Fans started to have expectations.  No longer were the players (as ESPN.com put it) "happy to be there".  No, they were there to win and to bring a title back to Pittsburgh.  These players, this organization, this fan base has embodied the fact that deep down to its roots, Pittsburgh is a baseball town.  The Steelers have the trophies, but the Pirates are at the core of this hard working town.  Not one member of "Buc Nation" is ready for this ride to end...not yet, not now.

There are some things that need to happen for the Pirates to succeed in dethroning the Cardinals as the class of the NL Central.  Monday's game was the first time I saw the Pirates starting to "press" this entire postseason.  The batters were thinking way to much and not reacting, and the results showed just that.  Adam Wainwright steps on the mound, and for the Pirates this is not an "unknown" pitcher.  The Pirates have faced him numerous times, and have gotten the best of him on more than one occasion.  Gerrit Cole needs to show up in a big way for the Pirates, but all the matchups aside, the Pirates need to get the job done to prove to themselves, the fans, the city, and the organization that this team has the "intestinal fortitude" to win a HUGE game.  No game has been this big for the Pirates in 20+ years.  The 5 game set with the Cardinals earlier this season...not even close.  The Wild Card game with the Reds...still not close.  The Pirates travel into enemy waters tonight, guns at the ready, and that Jolly Roger just waiting to be raised.  Buc Nation will need to have "all hands on deck" to help our Buccos get the job done so we can Raise that Jolly Roger all the way to the NLCS to face the Dodgers...Lets Go Bucs!