Yesterday, Clint Hurdle said that he had spent the last two days pouring over pie charts. Analytics, not gut, was going to inform his lineup decisions. "I think what you do is drill down to the facts," Hurdle said.
This afternoon the Pirates' manager released a lineup that sends as clear a message as can be sent: The club believes that as long as Jake Arrieta is on the mound, Aramis Ramirez and Pedro Alvarez don't increase the chances of scoring as much as their defense could cost the Pirates the most precious of commodities, runs.
"So you want to hope on guys getting hits and then hoping that maybe not a lot of balls are hit to [them]?