"It's about pitching and defense for me"

Clint Hurdle got the question right out of the blocks at his news conference today, as he surely expected, and had an answer ready.

“Did anybody win the lineup pool?” he responded when asked why he started Sean Rodriguez rather than Pedro Alvarez at first base. Some media members raised their hands. “I like the fact that there are only three of us thinking the same way. That means maybe you watched every inning of every game this year, as I did.”

Alvarez hit 27 home runs this season and has the most raw power of anyone on the team, but made 23 errors and was the worst defensive first baseman in baseball in his first year at the position.

“Late baseball like this, fall baseball, it’s about pitching and defense for me,” Hurdle said.

Rodriguez hit .246 with a .281 on-base percentage this season, but improved after Aug. 1, hitting .333/.385/.485 in 79 plate appearances. He is the superior defender at first base and routinely replaced Alvarez in the late innings this season when the Pirates had a lead.

Joe Maddon, meanwhile, went for offense, putting Kyle Schwarber in right and Kris Bryant in left while starting left-handed hitting Tommy La Stella at third. La Stella has 12 career games, six starts, at third.

“Pedro’s a big bat,” said Josh Harrison, the only Pirate available to the media before tonight’s game, at a news conference. “We know at some point tonight he’s going to be ready to be called upon. But that’s what makes our team so good is we’ve got a guy like Sean coming in, and we’ve got full faith in him as well.”

Alvarez is 2 for 17 with a homer against Arrieta. Rodriguez has never faced Arrieta. Michael Morse is 2 for 9 with a double against Arrieta and Aramis Ramirez, another first-base option, is 2 for 19.

[Alvarez and Ramirez] in particular have had some challenges against this guy,” Hurdle said.

Devil’s advocate:

There is no version of this where Hurdle could make a “right” or “wrong” decision. By putting his best defense on the field -- “We're putting our best pitcher on the mound, want to put our best defensive team behind him and find a way to scratch out one more run than the other team,” he said -- he is acknowledging the likelihood of a low-scoring game and taking steps to avoid having an Alvarez error decide it. He is also acknowledging the fact that Arrieta has allowed two homers since June 21, a span of 147 innings. And Alvarez will be available to pinch-hit, either late if the game is close or early if there are men on base and the Pirates fall behind.

But not giving him three plate appearances eliminates the chance that Alvarez could run into one and possibly split what could be a close game wide open. Rodriguez has hit better since August, but in a small sample size, and his body of work indicates that Alvarez is the better offensive option.