Look, here’s the deal: the Pirates have a baseball game tonight. Their best player is not playing. Another player, who is somewhere between their second and fourth best player (depending on your opinion of Russell Martin and Josh Harrison) is also not playing. Even though neither player is available in any way today, neither player is on the disabled list, so the back-end of the Pirate bench, which is already hamstrung by injuries, the bereavement list, and a player with the yips (OK, so the bereavement list guy and the guy with the yips are the same, but the yips has caused a sub-optimal roster restructuring and now he’s not with the team at all, so it’s kind of a double-blow from Pedro Alvarez at the moment) will be forced to play a large role in tonight’s game. It’s just really hard to imagine a universe in which this game will be fun to watch, even if the Pirates find some way to pull out a win.
And so I’m going to go see Guardians of the Galaxy, because I haven’t done that yet. Sometimes it’s best for your own sanity to just step away for a night.
Jeff Locke is starting for the Pirates tonight. If he makes it through seven innings, he should at least feel confident in the fact that Tony Watson and Mark Melancon are well-rested. His last two starts have gone exceptionally poorly, though they came in offense friendly environments. His last three starts featured 2+ walks, which he only did once in his first eight. With lingering questions about Gerrit Cole, I’d love to see a strong start from Locke tonight.
First pitch is at 7:05.
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