Gameday 116: Paul Skenes on the mound in Los Angeles to face the Dodgers
Battle of the rookies, Paul Skenes vs River Ryan
Mitch Keller allowed seven earned runs in four innings pitched, and the Pirates dropped the first of three games against the Dodgers 9-5.
Oneil Cruz picked up three hits, including a double and home run. He now has 18 home runs on the season.
Domingo German made his Pirates’ debut, pitching four innings and allowing two earned runs. He gave the bullpen a much-needed day off, as they have been used to the max as of recently.
The Pirates will now turn to Paul Skenes to try to stop their five-game losing streak. It will be his first time pitching in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, but not the first time he has faced the team itself.
River Ryan will pitch for the Dodgers, who has pitched well in his first three starts in the majors.
First pitch is expected 9:10 pm ET.
Pirates Lineup
2B - Isiah Kiner-Falefa
LF - Bryan Reynolds
SS - Oneil Cruz
DH - Joey Bart
1B - Rowdy Tellez
RF - Bryan De La Cruz
3B - Ke’Bryan Hayes
C - Yasmani Grandal
CF - Michael A. Taylor
Dodgers Lineup
DH - Shohei Ohtani
LF - Teoscar Hernandez
1B - Freddie Freeman
2B - Gavin Lux
RF - Jason Heyward
3B - Enrique Hernandez
C - Austin Barnes
CF - Kevin Kiermaier
SS - Nick Ahmed
Pitching Matchup
PIT - Paul Skenes (6-1, 1.99 ERA, 86 IP, 19 BB, 107 K)
LAD - River Ryan (1-0, 1.72 ERA, 15.2 IP, 9 BB, 14 K)
Yesterday’s Feature
Omar Alfonzo picked up four hits, including a home run, in his first game in High-A. I go back to that day and breakdown each at-bat from the catcher.
Today’s Feature
Nick Cimillo finally slugged his way out of Greensboro and to Altoona. After an initial struggle, he’s really starting to hit well, mainly due to strong contact rates.
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Serious question. We all poop on Grandal, myself included, for being awful. We all agree he is abysmal on offense. Fangraphs has him at good enough on defense to be positive value. Baseball Ref isn't as high but only has him at -0.2 for the year. Like, I get it. He is awful on offense. He's probably better on defense than Bart. But what are we doing here? He should be catching once a week. Let him be Skenes personal catcher or whatever if they think that's important. But come on.
This trip is going every bit as badly as you could expect.