Micah Owings and Tom Gorzelanny. Arizona color guy Mark Grace adores Owings. (Well he adores everything and everyone, but he seems to extra adore Owings.) Owings looks like he'll stick around. I've seen a few of his starts. I'm not sure he'll be better than league average, but he does play like a guy who belongs in the big leagues.
For some reason, I think the Pirates will hit him tonight. He looks pretty hittable to me. If he was a Pirate, I'd expect him to get knocked around at least half the time. To his credit, though, he's smart and unusually ballsy and self-confident for a young guy. He appears to think like a veteran. We'll see if he can fool and trick his way through the lineup.
The D'backs have a younger team than the Pirates. They are starting far more rookies than the Pirates. The Pirates do not often play a younger team; they should beat up on these guys pretty good.
If the season is a quest to finish so far above .500, then tonight's another must-win game. Every game's a must-win game. There can be no great margin of error with this team. The team can win tonight, or they can win two later. Either way they make one step toward that goal.
It's always easier to win one now than it is to win two later. Snell and Gorzelanny are not going to pitch any better than they have the last two months. Some players are going to come around, but there's not so much hidden vigorish that anyone should expect the Pirates to be dramatically improved in a month or two. So here's hoping that the team plays error-free ball with sustained concentration and no stupid mistakes.
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