May

27 games this month, thirteen on the road - mostly in the first half of the month - and fourteen at home. Thirteen or fourteen wins would be hanging in there. No Expos, Mets, or sorry AL clubs. The Bucs face Milwaukee in two series, Houston once, Chicago once, and the Cardinals twice.

They also play most of the NL West - Los Angeles, San Diego, at San Francisco, and at Colorado. No numbers at hand, but the Bucs never seem to do too well on west-coast road trips. Three games in Colorado followed by three at San Francisco will be jarring as the Bucs swing from the league's most violently strange hitting environment into a deadball paradise to face a team led by Barry Bonds. The Bucs will have to make some adjustments but no big deal. What are the odds Chris Stynes is still on the roster when we travel to Colorado? They should do better than anyone expects hosting LA and San Diego so that's a wash. I can see them winning half or more of these NL West games. It's not like LA circled this trip to Pittsburgh in the offseason and said to themselves, "Oh, Lordy, we'll have to play our best on this trip." Those might be good games to wager money on, in fact. Brian Giles should have SD on edge though.

For sure the NL Central games are more important. This is going to be a rough month. Win thirteen (less one for each pair of postponements) and we're still on schedule for the first winning season in many moons.