It's nice that the Pirates appear likely to call up Steve Pearce--a lot of us have been talking about his virtues against lefties for a while. I do hope, though, that the Bucs won't use Pearce as an excuse to mess around with Jeff Clement, who's already out of the lineup too much. Clement hasn't had much of a chance yet, and his ridiculously low BABIP (.182) suggests there's more in there than his mediocre traditional stats indicate. He also appears to have the tools to be a decent defensive first baseman. Sitting him once in a while against lefties, and at least Pearce being around probably means that the Pirates won't be starting Bobby Crosby at first anymore, but Clement should still be getting most of the playing time, at least for now. Even without his big night last night, he should be the regular at first.
Also in the article linked above is a note on the whereabouts of Victor Black, which some of us had been wondering about--he has a strained lat and will pitch next month.
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I only caught the first few innings of last night's game, but there was a moment in the second inning that was pure, vintage Jeff Karstens. Jim Edmonds hit a high fly ball deep, deep, deep to center field and there was a moment when it looked like it might find its way over the wall, but Andrew McCutchen caught up with it, and no harm was done. So many of Karstens' starts turn on those sorts of plays--in the good starts, the outfielders turn those balls into 350-foot outs, and in the bad ones, they go over the wall. Last night was (finally!) a good night, and Karstens was able to stay out of trouble for nearly seven innings. Good for him, and good for the Pirates, who really needed him to step up.