The Cheshire cat smile on Clint Hurdle’s face as he explained why he chose to rest some of his key regulars Sunday with a sweep of the Mets in the offing was the tipoff: This, in the mind of the Pirates manager, had all the elements of being one of those delightful (pardon the pun) reverse locks.
It did not matter to Hurdle that he was going into battle against Matt Harvey with Jeff Locke on the mound and Andrew McCutchen on the bench.
“We’re playing good baseball,” Hurdle was saying before the game. “We’ve got nothing to lose.