CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Sometimes it's difficult to shake an aching hangover that throbs inside and causes so much discomfort. To say the Pittsburgh Pirates are doing their best to put theirs behind them is an understatement. Try two of 'em, back-to-back.
The most recent is a pitcher named Jake Arrieta. The excruciating pain he inflicted was piled on top of what they faced the year before by another lights-out hurler named Madison Bumgarner.
Clint Hurdle didn't use these words, but he insists his Pirates have overcome the stupor inflicted by Arrieta and Bumgarner in back-to-back National League Wild Card Games
The Pittsburgh manager puts it more succinctly.