MLB: Milwaukee May Well Define the Pirates' Limits

Their rather sorry performance against the New York Mets aside, the Pittsburgh Pirates do well against teams of the National League East Division. They also don't do badly against the National League West, after making allowance for the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers (the one team that has swept them so far) is also the winningest team in baseball. They also haven't had a chance to face the cellar-dwelling San Diego Padres.

The Bucs haven't done so well in their own division. True, they swept the Chicago Cubs and are even against the Cincinnati Reds, but they barely squeaked out the rubber game of a series against the Houston Astros in extra innings at PNC Park. And they've been dominated by the St. Louis Cardinals. So when they complete a circuit of their division with the Milwaukee Brewers in Miller Park, these games will determine how the Pirates fare against the National League Central.

The fact that the Brewers are one of the weaker teams in the majors may be of less importance than the fact the Pirates have not done well against them in recent years, winning as few as one and no more than five games against them in any season since 2006. Moreover, Milwaukee once put together a stretch of more than 20 consecutive wins against the Pirates at home during this time.

There are reasons to hope the that the upcoming series will differ in the Bucs' favor. Milwaukee hits better on the whole than Pittsburgh. But they will not have Prince Fielder (who went free agent at the end of 2011) in the lineup this year. And Rickie Weeks, Nyjer Morgan (a former Pirate) and even Ryan Braun are hitting nothing like their 2011 selves this year.

Moreover, the pitching match-ups favor the Pirates. Tonight, they will have road warrior Kevin Correia matched against Randy Wolf, the Brewers' worst pitcher. Over the weekend, James McDonald and Erik Bedard, two of Pittsburgh's better pitchers will start against a weaker Shawn Marcum and rookie Michael Fiers. Fiers, however, was impressive in his first start Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There's no such thing as a must-win series. This, however, is the closest thing to it if the Bucs are to exorcise their demons against an otherwise weak team that has given them more trouble than most in the past. A 2-1 (or better) showing in this series would put Pittsburgh clearly above .500 against both their division and all of baseball, and hold the promise of a winning season. If it's a losing series, then it's back to the drawing board.