Pirates Fans Gather Downtown For Wild Card Rally
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Today has been declared as Pirates Pride Day and plenty of fans attended a rally Downtown.
Tomorrow night, the Pirates will take on the Chicago Cubs in the National League Wild Card Game. The winner will move on to face the St. Louis Cardinals.
Today's rally was held in the courtyard of the Allegheny County Courthouse. Several former Pirates players, including Kent Tekulve, broadcaster Greg Brown and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald addressed the crowd.
But, the big question going into the game is how do the Pirates get to Jake Arrieta?
"Actually, two options. You either catch him on a flat night, you know he's never been in postseason play and a lot of these kids on the Cubs have never been in postseason play. So, it might be brand new, you never know. You either have to catch him on a flat night or outpitch him. I like our chances to outpitch him, so let's jump on Jake," Steve Blass said.
Gerrit Cole will get the ball for the Pirates with the first pitch scheduled for 8:08 p.m.
Several of the Pirates and Cubs talked about the upcoming game today:
LOUD PIRATES WILDCARD FANS
Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington, " These guys fought hard to have the game at home because they know the impact our fans can have and we hope the fans don't take it for granted. We hope they show up loud, proud and let the Cubs know what they are in for."
Anthony Rizzo, Cubs First baseman, "We're very familiar with coming here and playing the Pirates and we've had a few opening days here where it was really loud."
Dexter Allen, Cubs outfielder, "It's going to be loud it's going to be loud but at the same time it's no Wrigley field.
Jake Arrietta, Cubs Starting Pitcher, "You know I expect it to be loud from the get go. I know the type of loyalty the fans havane here I know how passionate they are about their baseball here and I wouldn't expect anything less. I think the noise is something that you have to deal with it's always there in a certain aspect obviously tomorrow night it's going to be magnified more than most games but it is expected and something I'm comfortable dealing with. It makes those moments enjoyable for me."
Josh Harrison, Pirates Utilityman, " At the end of the day we don't count on the crowd to get to a pitcher like Arrietta that's our job. But anytime they can get loud and give us some momentum we'll take it."
Neil Walker, Pirates second baseman, "It's going to be an exciting atmosphere and you hope it will be as intimidating as it can be for the opponent."
Andrew McCutchen, Pirates Centerfielder, "It's pretty euphoric I can't explain it. You just got to be there in the moment. I can't put it in words because of how great it was.."
JAKE ARRIETTA ON HANDLING THE PIRATES
Jake Arrietta, "I feel confident I can neutralize a lot of their power and a lot of their speed guys with different sequences and I intend to have some pretty good success tomorrow."
MCCUTCHEN ON PIRATES STARTING PITCHER GERRIT COLE
"Everything he's got is pretty good so I'm looking forward to him going out and performing and keeping us in the ballgame."
GERRIT COLE ON WHAT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
"A lot of luck involved, you know, but there's a lot of little details that matter. The team that takes care of those the best comes out on top usually."
LOW SCORING GAME
Clint Hurdle, Pirates manager, "I know we're prepared to go out and have to have battles at bats, and try to outcompete the men they put on the mound, and vice versa, play solid defense and find a way to score one more run than them."
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