Braves Mid-Day Open Thread: Let's Go Pirates!

I really, really, really, really, really, really, reeeaaallllyyyy hope the Let's Go Pirates Girl is back for this series. And cup stack guy.

The Braves need to put this team away quickly, but they had trouble with them last year. They split the four-game series at Turner Field in 2011, with the Pirates staff posting a 1.58 ERA. This year the Bucs are bringing with them a collection of veteran starters -- a weird sight for a club that has been and still might be rebuilding. A.J. Burnett makes his second start of the year tonight, and then Erik Bedard tomorrow night.

Even with Tim Hudson returning this Sunday, the average age of Pirates starting pitchers in this series (31.5) is almost five years older than the average age of the Braves starters in this series (26.75). It seems like it's been a while since that happened. Those Pirates starters, by the way, have also been pretty good this year, all with ERAs under 2.80. Maybe the Braves can help them regress towards their mean.