It’s never a good time for a team to see one of their top performers suffer a serious injury, but this close to the postseason, it can end up being a disaster. The Pittsburgh Pirates lost Jung Ho Kang for the season last week, and will need the rest of the offense to pick up the slack. They will have the chance to do that when they face the Colorado Rockies in Denver on Wednesday night.
When a team is having a season as poor as the Rockies are having, all you can do is look for some positives. It’s not all doom and gloom, as they have a couple of players in the thick of the NL home run race, and they have also put together a month that has been better than they have been used to all season. Much of the credit for the latter has to go down to the ability to expand their roster this month. It’s well known that the Rockies have a pretty solid farm system in place, and while the guys they have brought in are not among their hottest prospects, they certainly seem to have breathed a little life into what was a stagnant clubhouse. Jorge De La Rosa (9-7, 4.17 ERA) will be in the mound for Colorado on Wednesday.
Pirates at Rockies: MLB Betting Preview
Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 Time: 8:40PM Venue: Coors Field Opening Line: Pittsburgh -138
K-pop star Hyomin flew all the way to Pittsburgh to throw a first pitch to Jung Ho Kang: http://t.co/kJuP5JatHo pic.twitter.com/MZmkhdI87R
— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 14, 2015
The loss of Kang is huge, as the rookie has been a real revelation this year. It came during a series loss to the Chicago Cubs, but the Pirates (90-60) have responded well, and are currently on a 3-game win streak heading into Tuesday night. You can almost bet that Pittsburgh will be looking beyond this series to the 3 games they have against the Chicago Cubs later this week. They will almost certainly be looking for revenge for the losses dealt to them by the Cubs last week, but the hope is that cooler heads will prevail, and that there will be no attempt at retribution for the Kang injury, which came as the result of a routine hard slide by a Cubs runner. It certainly looks as though the Pirates have their focus on this series, though, as they came out 9-3 winners in the opening game. Charlie Morton (9-8, 4.26 ERA) will get the start for Pittsburgh.
When a team is having a season as poor as the Rockies are having, all you can do is look for some positives. It’s not all doom and gloom, as they have a couple of players in the thick of the NL home run race, and they have also put together a month that has been better than they have been used to all season. Much of the credit for the latter has to go down to the ability to expand their roster this month. It’s well known that the Rockies have a pretty solid farm system in place, and while the guys they have brought in are not among their hottest prospects, they certainly seem to have breathed a little life into what was a stagnant clubhouse. Jorge De La Rosa (9-7, 4.17 ERA) will be in the mound for Colorado on Wednesday.
