Game 131: Cubs 12 Pirates 3

This whole game was kind of like a series of snowballs being pushed down a mountain. Jeff Karstens started off well enough by setting down three hitters in a row after Alfonso Soriano's lead-off single. In the second, he let in a run on a sac fly. In the third, he gave up four runs. At that point, he batted, then was removed from the game in the fourth. Jason Davis came in to prepare the second snowball for its run down the mountain. He put down the Cubs 1-2-3 in the fourth, then gave up a five-spot in the fifth and things were over from there.

Not much else to say about this one. I'm not going to harp on Karstens getting progressively worse with each outing since his near-no-no. Plus, the Cubs are really freaking good. Jason Davis, however, has me a bit worried. He looked pretty good in his early outings from the pen and in the rotation, but his peripherals were pretty bad. Recently, he's just looked pretty bad. Time for Evan Meek and Ross Ohlendorf?

Oh, and we got this guy for Bautista. He's a pretty uninteresting backup catcher that the reports kind of make me think of Jason Kendall post thumb injury (high batting average, decent defense, no power at all). Still, Bautista was a fairly uninteresting backup infielder at this point in his career. Getting worked up over and underwhelming return seems stupid if you consider this to be one piece of a puzzle that might allow a trade of, say, Ronny Paulino. No trade should be viewed in a vacuum.