The Sports Monitor

Pirates Nation can breathe a sigh of relief. Francisco Liriano erased the bad memories of Tuesday night's loss to the Cardinals with a complete-game gem Wednesday night. Liriano needed just 94 pitches to turn back the Cards in a 5-1 win. It was enough to forget Starling Marte's blunder in the ninth last night. Marte furthered his redemption with a two-run double to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead. The Pirates got a boost before Marte with homers from Garrett Jones and Pedro Alvarez. It's a big win to ease worries about any potential collapse. It was another superb start from Liriano. The Bucs now lead the Cards by three games in the NL Central and the Reds by 3.5 games.

It had been more than two years since I had been to a baseball game. That ended Tuesday night. Gerrit Cole warming up. Pic courtesy of my lousy phone camera. And what a night to catch a game; it was a playoff-like atmosphere at PNC Park. Gerrit Cole had a smashing debut, striking out his first batter faced on three pitches. In his first at-bat, he drove in two runs. Starling Marte hit a homer, Pedro Alvarez hit one, too, and the Pirates beat the World Champion Giants 8-2. What more could you want? Burger featuring egg and bacon on a doughnut. Well, I guess the timing for the metal-detector wands, but the Pirates admitted their mistake on that one. That wouldn't have been much of a problem if there weren't 30,000 fans there. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to see Cole's first start. He hit the upper-90s, including 98 in the seventh inning. He only struck out two, but he had tremendous control -- he didn't walk a batter and had a three-ball count o...

There comes a time when a team believes in itself. Then there are times when a fan starts to believe in a team. For me, I think that happened last night after the Pittsburgh Pirates shut out the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0. It took me 130 games, but I'm there. I admit it, I fully expected the Pirates to crack this series against the Cards. Nothing changed after the Bucs lost 4-3 Monday. Well, I thought they might get swept. Instead, the Pirates responded with back-to-back shutouts of one of the teams they're trying to chase down for a wild-card playoff berth. Today, before they enter a series against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pirates are just one game away from that coveted spot. I'm not sure they'll reach it, but I have faith they won't utterly collapse either, which was a big fear before the Pirates bounced back and beat the Cardinals 9-0 Tuesday. Maybe Pedro Alvarez will stay hot through the end of the season. If he does, then I think the Bucs ha...

Joe Mauer's new $23 million-a-year contract shouldn't make Pirates fans worry. There's been some nervousness out there that Mauer's deal will have some ramifications on the Pittsburgh Pirates. I wish that could be true. First, you have to suspend belief that the Pirates will ever develop a player of Mauer's caliber. Mauer is a three-time American League batting champion and is the reigning AL MVP. When was the last time the Pirates had that? Then, taking the leap of faith that an Andrew McCutchen or Pedro Alvarez becomes a player like that, you need to buy into the theory that Nutting and Co. would keep a player like that on the roster long enough to negotiate such a deal. Chances are McCutchen or Alvarez would be traded before negotiations would ever get reasonable close to a deal happening. In fact, with Alvarez being represented by everybody's favorite agent, Scott Boras, it's highly doubtful Alvarez would spend a second longer with the fran...