The Pirates don’t have to score nine runs every night after the All-Star break to prove that they’re an improved squad over the one that played in the first half. A great way to do that would just be to avoid multiple six-game losing streaks. They’ve dropped two winnable games in a row now, which isn’t bad, but now they’re staring the best part of the Padres’ rotation down for the rest of this series.
Tonight brings a Jeff Karstens/Mat Latos pitching matchup, which is far from favorable for the Bucs. Latos has been excellent both in and away from Petco Park and he’s been excellent since early June, though this is his first start since July 8th after an oblique strain that landed him on the DL. Karstens has been his solid-but-unspectacular Josh Fogg self of late, which should keep the Pirates in the game against San Diego. Who knows, maybe something good will happen if they cut down on the mental and physical errors from last night.
First pitch is 7:05, Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
Most of the points you see from last night’s game were a function of the two runners-up. Pedro Alvarez was runner-up Clemente to DJ Carrasco, while Jason Jaramillo was runner-up Cangelosi to Garrett Jones. All of the 2s on the scoreboard were from picking the two of them for one point apiece. In fact, the only point movement to result from something other than those two was Mornacale getting burned by Garrett Jones.
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