I didn’t really have much time to spend online yesterday after flying into Pittsburgh in the morning, so I was a little surprised to be greeted by my uncle yesterday afternoon with, “Did you see the lineup? Harrison’s leading off, Worley’s batting ninth, and everything’s crazy in between!” He was right, of course, with Jung Ho Kang making his first big league start and Andrew McCutchen out of the lineup with knee issues and Gregory Polanco with a day off.
Apparently, that lineup was no match for Jimmy Nelson and the Brewers, as Nelson buzzed through the Pirates with nine strikeouts over his seven two-hit innings. Vance Worley got rocked to the tune of six runs in his 6 1/3 innings of work, and the game was never close. Given Worley’s masterful run through spring training and Nelson’s relatively rough trip through the Cactus League, this is the sort of game that should serve as the annual reminder that Spring Training results are meaningless.
There was a bunch of little news that appeared all throughout the day yesterday: the Pirates lost Stolmy Pimentel to the Rangers (I find it interesting that a team that now has a Pirate connection in manager Jeff Banister was interested in Pimentel after his uninspiring run with the Pirates), Francisco Liriano’s rotation spot is being bumped back a few days due to recent the birth of his daughter, and now Andrew McCutchen’s knee is bothering him.
I will officially cop to now being a bit concerned about McCutchen. Missing spring training games isn’t a huge thing and so I didn’t spend much time losing sleep over that, but as soon as the health problems bleed over into regular season games, they become an issue. I still don’t think that any of this (the Pirates’ record, the chance that they drop to 1-5 today with Casey Sadler on the mound against Kyle Lohse, even McCutchen’s health) is worth losing sleep over, but it does suddenly feel like there are a bunch of little small things now floating around that could add up relatively quickly.
Of course, a win today changes the picture substantially; it’d give the Pirates a road series win in a place that’s generally tough for them to play and 2-4 isn’t an awful place to be headed back to the first home stand in a park the Pirates have played really well in the last couple of years. The big question today is Sadler, who will fill the Brandon Cumpton role for now with Charlie Morton on the disabled list and Cumpton out for the year with Tommy John surgery. Sadler made a few relief appearances with the Pirates last year and wasn’t great, but had a solid year with Indianapolis by doing exactly what you’d expect a Pirate spot-starter to do; he didn’t strike out many people, but he kept the ball on the ground and threw strikes. The Brewers won’t have a ton of time to prepare for him and they shouldn’t have a ton of film on him, so maybe we can hope for Sadler to make the “Hey Look It’s A Random Guy With Middling Triple-A Stats Oops He’s Dominating Because No One Knows Who He Is” start.
As mentioned, Kyle Lohse starts for the Brewers. Lohse got obliterated by the Rockies on Opening Day, allowing ten hits and eight runs in his four innings of work. There isn’t much word on who will play for the Pirates today, though I suspect we’ll see Tony Sanchez and at least Kang start again, based on what Clint Hurdle has said about playing his reserves this year. It wouldn’t really surprise me to see McCutchen get a second day off, especially if it’ll help him be ready to play in tomorrow’s home opener.
Anyway, the first pitch today is at 2:10.
Image: Rob Carr, Getty Images
