Late in last night’s game, Ernesto Frieri hit Paul Goldschmidt on the hands with a fastball. Given Frieri’s struggles this year, his inability to get the ball down last night, and the general game situation at the time (it was the ninth inning, so just as the Pirates were cresting after their comeback), it’s really hard to imagine Frieri hit Goldschmidt intentionally. Goldschmidt was put on the disabled list today with a fractured left hand today, though, and Kirk Gibson’s Diamondbacks are known for two things this year: being terrible at baseball, and macho bullshit. It is more or less unavoidable that Andrew McCutchen is going to get thrown at at some point tonight. Given that the Diamondbacks tried to start something on the field last night after the game ended, I’d hope that both clubs start tonight with a warning and Chase Anderson is tossed if anything untoward happens early on. Given the way Major League Baseball tends to handle these things, I assume that nothing will happen until ‘Cutch is pegged, and then we’ll have to hear about whether or not Vance Worley should risk his night by taking revenge on the Diamondbacks. I hate this kind of stuff; it’s tired, pointless, and doesn’t do anything but players at risk. I hope I’m wrong and it’s snuffed out before it starts tonight.
Anyway, Chase Anderson starts for the Diamondbacks. He was hugely unimpressive against the Pirates when he started against them a month ago. He’s looked better since then, but besides the Tigers, he hasn’t really faced much in the way of impressive offenses since. Vance Worley makes his first start since throwing his complete game shutout last week. Edinson Volquez’s struggles have certainly left the door open for him to grab the fifth starter’s spot if Gerrit Cole is returning anytime soon. There’s still no real world yet on Cole being scratched from his rehab start tonight. The Pirates have pointedly not called it a setback; he is, in fact, throwing a bullpen today (or maybe has already thrown one). We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
First pitch tonight is at 8:10, thank goodness. I can’t handle much more late night baseball.
