While everyone focuses on the 4 PM trade deadline, the Pirates still have a game to play against the Phillies this afternoon and they could certainly use a win to close out this road trip. Things look pretty bleak at the moment after two bad games in Philadelphia, but a 6-7 run over 13 games against the Reds, Cardinals, Braves, and Phillies really isn’t so bad and in any case, it’s now the best we can hope for.
Derrek Lee is not with the Pirates today, (as per DK he’s got family issues to take care of), which isn’t all that surprising given the close turnaround between the 11:30 PM trade and today’s 1:35 start. That means Lyle Overbay is in the lineup at first base for one last start as a Pirate. Whether he gets another one or not is probably out of his hands at this point. I know a lot of people (myself included) will be happy to see him out of the lineup, but it’s still hard to take a lot of joy out of the end of a player’s career even if that guy has been awful for the Pirates. Overbay seems like a good guy and it’s too bad this didn’t work out for him or for the Pirates.
The Phillies will send Vance Worley, the latest in their line of “not good but with good numbers to start their career” starters in the JA Happ mold. With some patience, I think the Pirates can get to Worley for some runs this afternoon. They’ll probably need them: Jeff Karstens looks a little more vulernable every time he takes the mound and this Philly lineup has been awfully homer-happy this weekend. I hope I’m wrong, but it’ll probably take six or seven runs to win this one today.
For a quick reminder, the trade deadline updates will appear in the post below this one, unless a trade is made, in which case I’ll put up a post to address that on its own. First pitch today is at 1:35.
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