Gameday 131: Pirates open four-game series in St. Louis with Oviedo on the mound
Johan Oviedo vs Michael McGreevy
After sweeping the Colorado Rockies, the Pittsburgh Pirates head on the road for seven straight games. They begin their road trip with four against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Johan Oviedo looks to build off his last start, where he allowed one run and struck out six over five innings pitched. He gets a shot to pitch against his former team, whom he faced three times in 2023.
Despite going 1-2, Oviedo pitched well, striking out 17 batters over 15.2 innings pitched (2.87 ERA). Six of the nine walks were in his last start, where he was struggling with his control towards the end of the season. He also struck out 10 batters over seven, one-run innings in one of the losses.
Michael McGreevy will pitch for the Cardinals. He faced the Pirates once as a reliever in 2024, striking out four over three innings pitched and picking up the win.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:45 pm ET.
Pirates Lineup
RF - Ronny Simon
2B - Nick Gonzales
DH - Bryan Reynolds
1B - Spencer Horwitz
LF - Tommy Pham
3B - Jared Triolo
CF - Jack Suwinski
C - Joey Bart
SS - Liover Peguero
Cardinals Lineup
LF - Lars Nootbaar
SS - Masyn Winn
1B - Alec Burleson
DH - Wilson Contreras
3B - Nolan Gorman
2B - Thomas Saggese
RF - Jordan Walker
C - Pedro Pages
CF - Nathan Church
Pitching Matchup
PIT - Johan Oviedo (1-0, 4.50 ERA, 6 IP, 9 K)
STL - Michael McGreevy (5-2, 4.26 ERA, 57 IP, 33 K)
Yesterday’s Feature
Pittsburgh Pirates 2025 draft update
The Pittsburgh Pirates have had seven of their 2025 draft picks make their official professional debut, only one of which has been a pitcher.
Today’s Feature
10 Observations: Esmerlyn Valdez, Konnor Griffin AA debut, Axiel Plaz
WTM 8/18: Apparently, other teams do look at pitch data. If you skim through Savant, you’ll find that just about every Pirate hitter has massive problems with breaking balls. Some, like Oneil Cruz and Nick Gonzalez, actually do OK with offspeed, but breaking stuff is death to just about all of their hitters.
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Omar Alfonzo growing as a leader in Pirates' organization
When talking about Altoona Curve catcher Omar Alfonzo, most of the attention is towards the bat, for good reason. He’s a power-hitting catcher who hits from the left side and has double-digit home run totals in each of the last two seasons.
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This is like the case I made for Bubba when he was struggling. If there is going to be someone in the bullpen that's going to put up a 5+ ERA, at least make it someone interesting that may have a future.
Let's see Bidois or Harbin. Dauri Moreta should be up. Left? Multi-inning? Hunter Barco is rule 5 eligible, let him pitch out the bullpen the rest of the year, you have to add him anyways.
If you are going to be bad, be interesting bad.
Been out. Just checking in, and ……
Cuck the Frads.