red alert

The baseball spotlight shifts to the National League tonight when former Ole Miss standout Zack Cozart, Taylorsville High alumnus Billy Hamilton and the rest of the Cincinnati Reds take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the do-or-die Wild Card Game. The Reds limp into the postseason with five straight losses, including a three-game sweep at the hands of the Pirates in Cincinnati over the weekend. Now they get to face Pirates ace Francisco Liriano (16-8, 3.02 ERA) at PNC Park in a town that hasn’t hosted a postseason game since 1992. Looks like a tough spot for the Reds, who'll throw lightly raced Johnny Cueto. Cincy shortstop Cozart, for his part, went 2-for-10 in 2013 against Liriano with a home run, one of the 12 he hit while batting .254 and driving in 63 runs. The Reds may be left to hope that Hamilton gets to play a role. He won’t start, but if there is a late-game need for a pinch runner, he’ll be it. And he is a weapon, having stolen 13 of 14 bases during his September call-up. P.S. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was the last skipper of the Jackson Mets, taking the team to the Texas League playoffs in 1990. The Mets pulled their Double-A club out of Jackson after that season, and the Houston-affiliated Generals moved in. The Generals’ first manager was Rick Sweet, now a roving instructor in the Reds’ system.