The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night, 6-2, and will now head on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series.
2013 NLDS schedule: Cardinals-Pirates opens Thursday in St. Louis
The Cardinals won 10 of 19 games against the Pirates in the regular season.
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The Pirates received a phenomenal start from Francisco Liriano and got off to a hot start offensively as they chased Reds' starter Johnny Cueto from the game in the fourth inning.
A.J. Burnett will make the start in Game 1 for the Pirates, making it Burnett vs. Adam Wainwright.
By virtue of playing in the same division, the Pirates and Cardinals have seen a lot of each other in 2013. The two squads played about as closely as possible, with St. Louis coming out the victor in 10 of their 19 match-ups against Pittsburgh. The Pirates won seven of the 10 games in Pittsburgh, but the Cardinals took seven of nine in St. Louis.
The Cardinals and Pirates engaged in a tight race for the NL Central crown, as well. The Pirates kept the division lead to themselves up until Sept. 6 and still had a share of the lead as recently as Sept. 16. The Cardinals ended up being the hotter team down the stretch, however, finishing three games ahead of the Pirates.
TBS will be broadcasting Game 1 and games 3 through Game 5 (as necessary) of the series. Dick Stockton will have play-by-play duties, while Bob Brenley and Matt Winer join as the analyst and reporter for the games, respectively. Game 2 will be on MLB Network with Bob Costas, Jim Kaat and Sam Ryan in the booth. ESPN Radio will air the full series with Dave Fleming taking play-by-play duties and Rick Sutcliffe acting as color commentator.
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