Road ahead isn't too easy for them either -- in the Arrieta start this series, they face Martinez, although he's been very bad lately. Hopefully the Phillies can play the spoiler with them. Unless there's a rainout or something else, though, they are getting lucky by avoiding Kershaw, i.e. the one pitcher in baseball who is definitely better than Arrieta (I am not delving too deep to find this info - I just see Kershaw's scheduled starts because of fantasy, and he has the day before the Cubs series).
Pirates will need to get a little luck and take care of business in their series' in order to maybe shave a game off. I don't think too much more can be expected; the De La Rosa/Locke matchup doesn't favor us at all, and we face both Hamels and fresh-from-TJ-surgery Yu Darvish in Texas. If we can go 4-2 this week, that will be a very solid showing (especially since the pitchers we are sending out vs. the latter two will be Niese and Nicasio...).
