If the Pirates are going to split this series with the Dodgers this week, they’re going to have to do it without Andrew McCutchen. Clint Hurdle’s benched McCutchen tonight and though I haven’t seen any comments, it’s presumably related to his lack of on-field concentration in the past ten days or so, from not paying attention on the base paths and running right into an out to protesting an umpire’s call while the play carried on in front of him to not running out a dropped third strike last night late in a close game. One of the things that is almost always reported about McCutchen is how level-headed he is, but it’s been hard not to notice him in a bad way on the field recently. Even though his bat is really heating up, I have no problem with Hurdle sitting on him for a night to try and get his head back in the right place.
Xavier Paul is starting in center and leading off in his place, and at least Neil Walker is back in the lineup to provide some support for Charlie Morton. Morton’s coming off of one of his better starts of the year over last weekend against the Astros, but he went back to his sinker-heavy ways in that game and that might not carry over against a better-hitting club like the Dodgers. As always, he should be interesting to watch.
I won’t be watching, though, because I’m headed back out to Durham tonight to catch the finale between Indianapolis and the Bulls. I’m excited because I just found out that Justin Wilson will be starting instead of Sean Gallagher, which will make tonight’s game much more interesting to watch. Unfortunately, I don’t have my camera (the weather is kind of ugly and I thought Gallagher was starting, so I didn’t bring it in to lab with me), but I’ll bring my scorebook and take some notes on Wilson’s control and velocity and have something to talk about tomorrow.
Jon Garland is going for the Dodgers against Morton. First pitch tonight is at 7:05.
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