Pittsburgh Pirates (90-64) v St. Louis Browns (90-64)
Best-of-seven, Pirates with the home-field advantage.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES S+ PAGE
ST. LOUIS BROWNS S+ PAGE
And so it is a rematch of last year’s epic World Series and, for mine, how we go here comes down to one thing: how our pitching performs.
Absolutely no doubt in my mind this is a superior Browns squad to 1917. Spratt had another monster year, Collins remains a menace, McHenry is a huge add, Sisler will punish you with great regularity. On the pitching side, Williams had perhaps his best year yet (which is saying something) and in Urban Shocker they have found the perfect backup man for him.
If we don’t keep their bats under control, it won’t matter how well we handle their pitching—this will be over quickly and painfully.
Cooper’s playoff record is just too poor to ignore, and I make the difficult choice of putting Mamaux in over him as our third starter. Another tough decision for me is Schultz as our 5th outfielder rather than Zaza Harvey. This one is a matter of flexibility and, given Zaza’s skills have waned, Schultz is not really much of a step down in that regard. Neither would be expected to see much action at any rate.
