Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Starling Marte left Wednesday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals with an injury to his left hand
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Marte has ‘Discomfort’ in Left Hand
Wednesday, August 12
Marte left Wednesday night’s game in the third inning after injuring his left hand, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Stephen J. Nesbitt.
Shortly after his exit, Nesbitt reported the Pirates’ official word on Marte with no timetable issued:
Marte has appeared in 103 games for the Pirates this season, batting .287 with 13 home runs and 57 RBI. He’s already equaled his home run output from last season, when he hit 13 homers in 135 games.
Pittsburgh will miss Marte’s speed on the basepaths as well. He swiped a career-high 41 bases in 2013, following that up with 30 the following season. He has 22 this year and has been an extremely important asset to their success, according to ESPN Stats & Info:
Marte was replaced by Sean Rodriguez on Wednesday, who is playing in his first season with the Pirates after coming over from the Tampa Bay Rays. There doesn’t seem to be a viable backup plan for the Pirates’ starting left fielder. Rodriguez is batting just .224 this season with three home runs and seven RBI in 93 games.
Another option moving forward could be Travis Ishikawa, who is listed on MLB.com as Marte’s backup. The Pirates acquired Ishikawa through waivers July 5 from the San Francisco Giants after he played just six games for them all season. Since coming to Pittsburgh, he has appeared in 25 games and has recorded just eight hits.
The Pirates will have to try to keep pace with the National League Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals despite losing Marte. Pittsburgh trails the Cardinals by six games, but they do have a tight hold on the National League wild-card race, with a 2.5-game lead over the second-place Chicago Cubs.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com
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