Neal Huntington Talks Celebration, Possible One-Game Playoff Starter
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) - Just one day after his team clinched their first playoff berth since 1992, Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington joined Starkey, Miller and Mueller to talk about putting this team together and what it was like celebrating last night's playoff clinching victory over the Cubs.
"While we certainly expect and are working to having more celebrations, we figured if we have to have four more of them, we'll enjoy each one a little bit more," Huntington said about the team celebrating their playoff berth. "We also wanted to let the city see these guys' passion, we want to let the city partake in that celebration by getting some of the images back to the city, because it's been a long time coming. If we'd been in 10 straight division championships, maybe you don't celebrate a playoff berth, maybe you wait until you lose the division or not. We felt it was appropriate given our situation, our cities situation, our fan base's situation, we felt it was appropriate to go ahead and somewhat celebrate."
Huntington also took some time to look ahead to a potential one-game wildcard situation, and who they'd want making the start.
"If you can avoid it, you want to avoid playing the one-game winner-take-all scenario to get to the division series. Part of it will be who is our opponent, as we sit here today it looks like Cincinnati, but there will be a number of factors that go into that. I will tell you this, if it's Francisco Liriano, or Gerrit Cole, or AJ Burnett or Charlie Morton that takes the ball on the mound that day, we feel pretty good about our chances."
Things wrap up with Huntington talking about scoreboard watching yesterday and how his focus shifted yesterday when he heard his team celebrating.
