The Pirates and Brewers play a double-header at PNC Park this afternoon/evening. Joel Hanrahan is unable to pitch in either game. Jose Veras is unable to pitch in either game. Brad Lincoln is starting the back end of the double-header. Jen Langosch is reporting that both Ross Ohlendorf and Chris Leroux are in Pittsburgh, but neither has been added to the active roster … yet. Ohlendorf will start tomorrow night’s game and Leroux is here in case things get exceptionally ugly at any point over the next nine hours that requires another arm in the bullpen for the nightcap or tomorrow night’s game.
To summarize the following paragraph: the Pirates have a series against a team that they can’t beat, and their pitching staff is in shambles. Things could get pretty ugly over the next four days, if you don’t consider the bullpen meltdowns on Friday and Sunday to be ugly already.
That said, I am pretty interested in watching Brad Lincoln pitch in the nightcap tonight. He’s only had a handful of relief appearances since being called up earlier this month and I want to see how he fares in real start. His biggest problem with both the Pirates last year and Indianapolis (when he’s had his occasional struggles there) tends to involve the longball. The Brewers excel at hitting the ball over the fence. It should at least be informative to watch.
Beyond that, I really hope that things just don’t get too embarrassing tonight. The first pitch of the first game, started by Jeff Karstens is at 5:05 and the nightcap will follow shortly after.
UPDATE: Kevin Correia is going on the disabled list with a strained left oblique (I believe this is newspeak for ‘suckitis’) and so Chris Leroux will be with the team for tonight. Presumably someone (Leroux, or maybe Tony Watson, I guess, but I hope it’s Leroux) will be demoted following the double-header to make room for Ross Ohlendorf to start tomorrow. Correia’s scheduled to start Wednesday, so there might need to be another move to get a spot starter for Wednesday (Jeff Locke is scheduled to pitch for Indianapolis Wednesday or Thursday I think, so keep an eye on that).
