Tonight it's Victor Santos going for the Pirates against Chris Capuano for the Brewers. We'll see if we can build on the excitement from Opening Day while, perhaps, cutting down a bit on the strikeouts.
A little about Dracula: you may wonder how he ended up on the Pirates, or maybe even why he has a Major League starting job at all after his collapse midway through last year. In November, the Royals signed Santos to a minor league contract, but because they didn't protect him on their 40-man roster, the Pirates picked him in the Rule 5 draft.
The Pirates picked him up as insurance, perhaps to compete with youngsters like Paul Maholm and Ian Snell, but when Kip Wells went down with an injury, he was that much closer to a rotation spot. It's April, and he's got one...for now.
I just looked up Santos's 1st half stats from last year. He was sure pitching well--too many HRs--but he was holding opponents to an OBP just over .300. But, he was just getting lucky. His BABIP was .247, and it's a rare pitcher than can sustain a BABIP under the league average, which is about .300. Luck figured to catch up with him, and it did so with a vengeance.
Enough about Victor. I hope luck catches up with him some more tonight, but more importantly, I'd like Prince Fielder to catch up with, oh, let's say two of his fastballs.
I think we'll see a similar lineup tonight that we saw yesterday, except Corey Koskie will be in the #7 spot instead of Bill Hall. It'll be Koskie's Milwaukee Brewers debut. I hope he makes a splash, and I'm sure the crowd at Miller Park will be extremely welcoming to our new 3rd baseman.
The action starts at 7:05 CT. I'll be here chatting throughout the game, and we'd love to have you join us.
Tags: Ian Snell, Victor Santos, Milwaukee Brewers, Paul Maholm, Kip Wells, Miller Park
Update [2006-4-4 19:20:13 by Jeff]: Here are the lineups:
Pittsburgh:
- Nate McLouth, CF
- Jack Wilson, SS
- Sean Casey, 1B
- Jason Bay, LF
- Craig Wilson, RF
- Joe Randa, 3B
- Jose Castillo, 2B
- Ryan Doumit, C
- Victor Santos, P
Brewers:
- Brady Clark, CF
- JJ Hardy, SS
- Geoff Jenkins, RF
- Carlos Lee, LF
- Prince Fielder, 1B
- Rickie Weeks, 2B
- Corey Koskie, 3B
- Damian Miller, c
- Chris Capuano, P
Update [2006-4-4 23:33:40 by Jeff]: Just like last night, it wasn't pretty. Brewers win 7-5! Capuano gets the win with 6 innings and 2 runs. Turnbow the save, working out of his own jam in the 9th. Lots of offense from all over the order (16 hits total), highlighted by a PH homer by Gabe Gross in his first Milwaukee AB. 2-0, still in first place.