The Pirates and Padres will close out their four-game set tonight with the oddly timed Sunday night game that isn’t on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. This is due to the San Diego Marathon (see above), which took place earlier today and ended in Petco Park, thus necessitating the late start time.
The Pirates have a chance to start this 11-game West Coast and Atlanta road trip with three wins in four games against the Padres, which would be a nice start to things given how the Pirates can sometimes look on the road. They’ll send Jeff Locke to the mound today. It’s hard to have much confidence in Locke at this point when a “good” start for him consists of 5 2/3 innings and four walks and 104 pitches. He’ll face of against Ordrisamer Despaigne, who hasn’t fooled many hitters thus far in 2015. Through ten appearances and six starts, he’s striking out a batter every other inning and giving up more than a hit per inning. One would think that the fully armed and operational Pirate offense could take advantage of a pitcher like that.
First pitch tonight is at 9:10.
Photo by Kent C. Horner/Getty Images
