Cubs vs. Pirates, NL Wild Card Game Thread

Pitching dominated the evening for last night's Wild Card game. Dallas Keuchel deftly dispatched the Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka for the Yankees gave up a few dingers, but three runs overall by the whole pitching staff isn't bad. Tanaka has a dinger problem, so it's not surprising that problem reared its ugly head and bared its fangs last night...at the worst time for the Pinstripes.

Pitching will again take center stage tonight. Jake Arrieta allowed like four runs over the past bazillion starts, so the Pirates might find scoring a difficult thing. Gerrit Cole has done similar run-prevention-type things. With the game being hosted in Pittsburgh (another Wild Card game in Pittsburgh...), offense may be in short supply as it was last night.

Then again, the Cubs have a young, powerful offense. Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Anthony Rizzo, and company can hit dingers. Veterans Chris Coghlan and Dexter Fowler have given very good performances this year as well. They match well with Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Francisco Cervelli.

Enjoy some elimination action!