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Pirates try to secure playoff spot vs. Braves

Sep 23, 2014 - 4:29 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Exactly one year ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates ended a 20- year playoff drought.

Times sure are changing for the Pirates and they have a chance to secure a second straight trip to the postseason on Tuesday night in the second of four straight meetings with the Atlanta Braves.

The Pittsburgh franchise had endured a North American professional sports record 20 straight losing seasons before a 94-68 mark last season that sent them into the postseason as a wild card winner.

This season the Pirates have already secured another winning season, entering play tonight at 85-71, and are tied with the San Francisco Giants for the top wild card position in the National League. Both teams are five games clear of Milwaukee and a victory tonight by the Pirates and a loss by the Brewers to the Cincinnati Reds would officially clinch another playoff berth.

And like last season, Pittsburgh is still in play for the NL Central title, sitting 2 1/2 games behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals with six games to play.

Young hurler Gerrit Cole will try to do his part for the Pirates tonight on the mound and win a fourth straight start. He extended his personal run on Thursday versus Boston, giving up two runs and six hits over seven innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out seven.

Cole, a right-hander, is 10-5 on the year with a 3.85 earned run average and faced the Braves for the first time in his career back on Aug. 20. He did not factor into his club's 3-2 win, yielding a pair of runs on five hits and four walks over seven innings.

Atlanta's Alex Wood squared off against Cole in that game and does so again tonight. Like Cole, Wood did not get a decision as he was facing the Pirates for the first time as a starter. The 23-year-old southpaw was charged with two runs over seven innings.

Wood comes in unbeaten over his last four starts (2-0) and having not allowed more than three earned runs in 10 straight outings, a run that began on July 30. He most recently beat Washington on Wednesday, yielding a solo homer among his five hits over six innings.

Wood also fanned eight in the win, giving him 34 strikeouts over the last four starts and an 11-10 record on the year with a 2.78 ERA.

The Pirates will try to break out against Wood having been involved in three straight 1-0 games for the first time since Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1917. While they lost all three of those games nearly a century ago, the Pirates have won two straight and seven of their past eight overall.

Francisco Liriano pitched six innings of three-hit ball, striking out seven to four walks, and Andrew McCutchen drove in the only run of the game with a sixth-inning homer, one that saw him put a little extra emotion into his home run trot.

"You get all the hecklers and stuff back there behind you," said McCutchen. "They like to talk to you as if you're an animal in the zoo and you can't say anything back.

"I had a little bit of that going into that at-bat. I hit the big home run and I couldn't hear anything, it was as quiet as a church. It's always good to get the last laugh."

Aaron Harang took the hard-luck loss as he gave up just the home run along with four hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven over seven innings for the Braves, who lost for the ninth time in 10 games on the same day they shook up their front office.

Prior to the game, the Braves fired general manager Frank Wren one day after the club was officially eliminated from the playoff race and named John Hart as interim GM.

The move didn't seem to have an impact on Harang, though the offense was held to three runs or fewer for the 10th game in a row.

"He's been around for a while now and has probably seen a lot of stuff," said Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez about Harang. "I didn't have any doubt in my mind that he was going to give us a good outing."

The Braves have won five of their past seven versus the Pirates, winning two of three in Pittsburgh from Aug. 18-20.