Pirates sport better record than disappointing Yankees
PITTSBURGH (AP) – When the interleague schedule was released, this looked to be one of baseball’s worst possible mismatches: Pirates vs. Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Minuscule payroll vs. megasized one. Small-market ball vs. the biggest of the big markets. Expectations and accomplishments aside – the Yankees have won four World Series championships since the Pirates’ last winning season – the financial imbalance couldn’t be much greater. After all, the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez ($25.7 million) could pick up the salaries of the entire Pittsburgh starting lineup and still have millions left over.
No wonder the Pirates are fielding question after question about playing in Yankee Stadium starting Tuesday, and whether they will be unnerved or distracted during their first regular-season series in one of baseball’s storied ballparks.
“It can be an intimidating stadium,” pitcher Brian Meadows said. “I’ve played there, and I’m ready for it. You’ve got to go there and play the team, you’re not playing the city or the stadium.”
But here’s one possibility nobody considered back in December, most certainly not oft-volcanic Yankees owner George Steinbrenner: What if those not-a-household-name-in-the-bunch Pirates came into the series with a better record than the Yankees?
Check the standings: Despite a 7-5, 13-inning loss Sunday to awful Tampa Bay that manager Lloyd McClendon called their worst all season, the Pirates are 30-31 heading into the franchise’s first games in Yankee Stadium since the 1960 World Series.
The Pirates are coming off a 9-4 homestand against the Marlins, Braves, Orioles and Devil Rays, even though Sunday’s loss prevented them from being over .500 for the first time so late in a season since 1997.
The Yankees? Despite a $205 million payroll that about equals those of the Pirates’ last five seasons combined, they are 30-32 following a just-concluded 3-9 road trip. For comparison’s sake, they were 40-21 and the Pirates were 24-35 on June 13 a year ago – a 151/2-game swing in a year’s time.
So, rather than asking the Pirates how it feels being on the same field with Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, shouldn’t someone ask the Yankees about facing Rob Mackowiak (.410 average since May 3) or Jack Wilson (.378 average since May 30)?
Uh, maybe not.
“What I’ve said all along is if we pitch well, we can compete against the big teams,” McClendon said.
The improved pitching – their starters are 16-6 with a 3.17 ERA in the last 33 games – best explains the Pirates’ modest turnaround. They don’t look to be overmatched in any of the pitching matchups in the Yankees series, with Kip Wells (5-4, 3.39 ERA) opposing Mike Mussina (6-4, 4.33) on Tuesday, Mark Redman (4-4, 2.80) going against Kevin Brown (4-6, 5.43) on Wednesday and Oliver Perez (5-4, 5.88), on a four-game winning streak, facing Randy Johnson (6-5, 3.76) on Thursday.
Still, this is the first time McClendon has taken a team on the road worrying if they’ll get their sightseeing done quickly enough – even he wants to see the monuments in the House That Ruth Built. After playing the Yankees, the Pirates spend their first weekend ever in Boston’s Fenway Park.
Jason Bay, last year’s NL Rookie of the Year, is so hyped he’s bringing in most of his family for the week; his dad is a Red Sox fan. Rookie catcher Ryan Doumit fairly gushes when talking about his good luck in being called up just before the series, of standing in the same batter’s box Babe Ruth did. And just about every player who’s married is taking his wife on the trip.
“It’s nice to go to these places and take in the history,” McClendon said. “But my job is to win games. We’re not going there as tourists.”
They’re also not going there as the worst team in baseball. Since they were 8-16 in early May, the Pirates have won 22 of 37 – hardly a surge, but an encouraging run for a franchise without a winning record since 1992.
And the Pirates have something else going for them few teams do in Yankee Stadium – a two-game winning streak, albeit a 45-year-old one. They won their last two games there, Games 4 and 5 of the 1960 World Series.
“There’s a lot of history in Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, and the atmosphere is going to be great,” said Matt Lawton, a former Twins and Indians outfielder. “It’ll be the first time I’ve gone there in 10 years where they (the Yankees) weren’t winning big. I think we’re up for it. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be tough, but we’re playing good baseball right now.”