Pittsburgh Pirates (91-63) v Washington Senators (91-63)
Best-of-seven, Pirates with the home-field advantage.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES S+ PAGE
WASHINGTON SENATORS S+ PAGE
Both sides fairly limped home with dreadful Septembers and this Series will be won by the team who best manages to turn things around. Identical records for the year reflect the closeness in natural talent both have at their disposal, and the two are actually very similar in structure. All of which means if everything goes according to Hoyle, this should be a really tight one.
Of course, that is predicated on us performing to our ability. We have been scorching and we have been arctic, form-wise, this year. Our success here rides on which end of this spectrum we find ourselves at over the 4 to 7 games required to settle the matter.
Apart from Streeter, the final composition of our rotation was a really close-run thing. Brown’s injury-interrupted season has left his form in tatters. Cooper has been great but historically struggles at this time of the year. Foster is raw and inconsistent. Mirabal was great as our SP4 in Brown’s absence. Even McDonald got a look-in. But in the end I played it conservatively and we’ll go with Streeter-Brown-Cooper. But any early shockers and this will almost certainly change.
With the position players, Traynor gets the nod over Lundy at 2B. Marcell will start at 3B against the lefty Sherdel, a former member of our farm system.
