The Pirates have lost two in a row. My first instinct at the moment is, “I wonder what’s wrong with them.” That’s a weird feeling; in prior years they’d have to drop at least six in a row to get my attention.
Now would be a bad time for the Pirates to drop six in a row, so Jeff Karstens gets a chance to play stopper today. Karstens, as we’ve all been talking about, has been excellent in his last few starts in 2011. The Pirates need a strong six from him today. His mound opponent is Justin Masterson; Mastson started the season well and he still has an excellent ERA, but he’s getting hit awfully hard lately and in his last start he allowed 12 baserunners in 6 1/3 innings. Somehow he only gave up two runs in that start, which is part of why his ERA is still so good. The Pirates need to score early and often in this one, both to prove to themselves that they can do it after these two rough games against Carrasco and Tomlin, and to build a cushion since whenever Karstens starts the bullpen is going to have to get involved.
First pitch today is at 1:35.
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