Monday’s “First Call” looks at the Pirates’ upcoming series at home against Seattle. We discuss the state of the National League Central Division and the wild card race. A local Major League Baseball product had a huge day.

We get into Anthony Mantha’s contract status with the Penguins, and we give you an interesting item about NFL officiating.

Best of the worst

Now that the Pirates (39-39) have finished off a western road trip through Colorado and West Sacramento, they welcome the best team from the American League West.

Which isn’t saying much.

After an off day for both clubs on Monday, the Seattle Mariners open a three-game series at PNC Park Tuesday night. They come in as leaders of the worst division in baseball at 40-39, having just dropped two of three at home to the lousy Boston Red Sox (31-44).

The Mariners are a first-place team despite being just a game over .500. They have won consecutive games just one time since June 2.

Seattle does have some pop. The Mariners’ 98 homers are tied for ninth in Major League Baseball. Julio Rodriguez and Luke Raley are tied for the team lead with 14 apiece. Dominic Canzone has the best OPS on the team at .915 with 12 homers.

He hit one out of the park against the Red Sox during a 3-1 win on Sunday, before leaving with a hamstring injury.

The pitching staff has done a good job, posting a 3.62 staff ERA, fifth-best in Major League Baseball. As a group, they’ve racked up 35 quality starts. That’s the third-highest total in the league.

According to the Seattle Times, George Kirby (5-7, 4.10 ERA), Bryan Woo (6-5, 3.94 ERA) and Bryce Miller (3-1, 1.58) will be Seattle’s starters Tuesday-Thursday.

The Pirates will counter with Mitch Keller (5-4, 5.25), Braxton Ashcraft (6-3, 3.18) and Bubba Chandler (2-7, 4.62).

What a day for JJ

The Pirates managed to avoid a sweep at the hands of a last-place team in Colorado with an 8-6 win on Sunday.

The division rival St. Louis Cardinals did the same thing against Kansas City, outslugging the Royals, 12-10.

Mars alum JJ Wetherholt homered twice.

Those were Wetherholt’s 11th and 12th homers of the season. According to OptaStats, he’s just the third Cardinals rookie with two multi-HR games prior to July. Albert Pujols in 2001 and Ken Boyer in 1955 were the others.

The Cardinals are now five games behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League Central lead. At 41-34, they lead the NL Wild Card chase.

The Pirates are 39-39. That’s only good for fourth place in the NL Central (8 ½ games behind Milwaukee), and 1 ½ games out of a wild card slot.

Penguins problem

According to a post from The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun over the holiday weekend, the Pittsburgh Penguins tried to retain Anthony Mantha on a one-year contract offer. However, the forward decided to test the free-agent market in hopes of landing a two-year deal instead.

“Mantha, 31, put up a career-high 33 goals with the Pittsburgh Penguins after playing just 13 games a season earlier with the Calgary Flames,” LeBrun said. “The Penguins would have brought him back on another one-year deal, but that’s not happening. Mantha’s camp, led by agent Olivier Fortier, will bring his client to market and likely look for a four-year deal. There should be solid interest, given the lack of goals available on the UFA market. I could see Mantha net between $5 million and $6 million per year.”

That’s a lot of money for a guy who has failed to score a goal in his 20 career playoff games, but for a contender in need of regular-season point production to sustain an 84-game season, go for it, I guess.

Mantha made $2.5 million last year for the Pens. He played 81 games and put up 64 points. The native of Quebec will turn 32 in September.

Ref review

ESPN.com found an interesting nugget in the new collective bargaining agreement between NFL officials and the league.

Apparently, there is language that allows underperforming officials to be assigned to the UFL.

Featured Local Businesses

More local businesses

According to NFL V.P. of officiating training and development Ramon George, officials subject to review would be those who “underperformed during the season, and were not assigned” to a playoff game.

Those officials who fell under that umbrella would work with their supervisors to improve any shortcomings in field awareness, mechanics and positioning.

If it is deemed that these officials need their skills sharpened, they could be assigned to UFL games.

It’s unclear how many officials would receive that training per year.