With yesterday's win, we crept up to a 89-win pace, at least with rounding. (It's 88.53, if you're keeping score at home.) Since the Cubs and Cards are playing this weekend, we were bound to gain ground on somebody; as it stands right now, we're one game out of the wild card, and if the Cubs hold on to an early lead, that could be down to a half-game by the time the first pitch is thrown at Miller Park.
The matchup is Dave Bush vs. Paul Maholm. At the macro level, that seems to tilt in the Pirates favor--Maholm's ERA is nearly a full run lower than Bush's. On the other hand, Maholm is a lefty, as as team we OPS about 50 points higher against southpaws. (For his part, Maholm has an even more dramatic split, and he can expect to see Prince plus a bunch of righties in the lineup tonight.) Bush, as you probably know, has been considerably better at home, with an ERA of 3.18 at Miller Park. (Amazingly, that makes his home ERA fourth best among the current starting five.)
Game time is 6:05 CT, and here's the BR Game Preview.
Go Brewers!