JT Brubaker looked at his right hand in the sixth inning Thursday and noticed a blister starting to form.
"This couldn't have come at a worse time," he thought to himself.
Brubaker finished that frame and the seventh before being removed at 84 pitches as a precaution. He missed out on a chance to go for his first major-league shutout, but his performance against the Red Sox at PNC Park that night was one of the finest for any Pirate pitcher this year, going seven shutout frames of two-hit ball to set the pace in an 8-2 Pirates win.