Jeff Karstens’ return to the rotation is apparently not going to last very long, as the Pirates are pulling him out of the rotation after tonight. That makes sense: he’ll be about 40 innings over his career high after tonight’s start and there’s just no reason to keep him in the rotation for one or two more starts as the season ends.
The Pirates meanwhile are working their way back out east to play the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks will be in the playoffs this year and there’s no Hello Kitty day scheduled for the Pirates’ visit this week, so there’s no chance this series will be as hilariously tragic as last weekend’s debacle in LA. That said, Karstens hasn’t looked so good in the second half and the Diamondbacks score a ton of runs and Ian Kennedy is making an outside run at this year’s NL Cy Young Award (not that he deserves it, mind you, but he has been quite excellent this year all the same). I don’t like this matchup. I don’t like any matchup for this team right now.
First pitch tonight is at 9:40.
