I think that it's usually a pretty ominous sign when in advance of someone's start, a team specifically demotes a tired pitcher in favor of a long reliever. In this case, I'm talking about Bryan Morris being sent back down to Triple-A Indy after throwing three innings yesterday to make room for Vin Mazzaro. It's not that the move doesn't make sense (Jeanmar Gomez, Justin Wilson, and Morris have all had long outings in the last two days thanks to poor starts from Phil Irwin and James McDonald), it's just that the whole thing feels to me like a neon sign blinking, "DANGER ZONE! DANGER ZONE!"
There's not really anything that can be done about this at this point, it's just that I'm not at all comfortable knowing that there's a chance that we as Pirate fans could be living out a Royal fan's nightmare from last year when Jonathan Sanchez makes a bad start and gets relieved by Vin Mazzaro. It's not a secret that aspects of this rotation worry me quite a bit right now, I'm just pointing out that while the first two weeks of the season weren't so bad, there are some ominous portents in the clouds right now.
Anyway, Jonathan Sanchez is on the mound for the Pirates. Jake Westbrook is on the mound for the Cardinals. Travis Snider is batting .400/.500/.550 since getting moved into the starting lineup regularly last week, so of course he's on the bench tonight against a righty in favor of Jose Tabata. The first pitch tonight is at 7:05. Unless it rains before then. It wouldn't rain in Pittsburgh in April, would it?
