But not really. There's literally no one on the 40 (except Mitch Walding) who isn't already up or hurt. This is why they traded for Bruce. In theory Nick Williams should have had that AB but he's currently worse than Phil Gosselin. In theory Scott Kingery should have had that AB but he's starting for our suspended CF.
And we have five injured relievers.
See, it's funny, you say Kapler was managing like it was the World Series but I might argue he's willing to lose that inning while developing Velasquez as a high-leverage reliever (and viewing some of the youngsters as lower leverage, i.e. guys who mop up or pitch when you're behind). Should he be pitching two days in a row this early in his reliever career? I would not claim to know because I think everything everyone in baseball claims to know about pitch counts, rest and usage patterns is largely theory and tradition (yes, there's some science and numbers behind it but it's like the debate over whether eggs are good for you, y'know?)
With the way this offense has performed in Chavez Ravine today I'm gonna stick with the notion that they had to play for one run too.
