PITTSBURGH — Having to miss his last two starts, right-hander Jeff Karstens won’t be waiting much longer before taking the mound. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said on Friday that Karstens will start on Tuesday the 13th, and again on Monday the 19th.
“He was convinced that he just needed a blow,” Hurdle said. “We were convinced that maybe it was a blow that we’d see how his arm responded with a few days back. There’s no discomfort. He wants to get back on the mound. We’re going to give him that opportunity as we schedule this all out. We’ll probably get into a sequence where we use all six pitchers a couple times through the rotation. We definitely don’t want to push it, but there’s no red flags since we set him down since the fatigue he felt last outings. He just ran out of gas, a little bit of discomfort. But since then, everything’s been good.”
Hurdle had originally penciled Karstens in to start only on the 19th, but after a great bullpen on Wednesday, the skipper decided to give him the opportunity on Tuesday as well.
“His bullpen session on Wednesday, went very, very well,“ Hurdle said. “He feels good. He’ll be plugged in for those two starts and then I think we’ll have a conversation about unplugging him and then recreating whether we stay with a six [man] or stay with a five. [We will] fill a couple open dates with ether [Brian] Burres or [Aaron] Thompson. “
Karstens, who missed two starts due to arm fatigue, has posted a 9-8 record with a 3.32 ERA this season.
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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