Gameday 41: Pirates look for series win against the Chicago Cubs
Bailey Falter on the mound for the Pirates on Mother's Day
There wasn’t much that we didn’t get to see on Saturday in the Pirates/Cubs game.
The major league debut of the best pitching prospect in baseball, Paul Skenes, who struck out seven batters in 4+ innings of work.
Walks, a lot of them. Pirates pitchers issued 10 free passes on Saturday. Kyle Nicolas walked three straight batters on four pitches. Colin Holderman came in after a rain delay and walked another three.
Then there were the home runs, five of them by the Pirates. Oneil Cruz, Connor Joe, Andrew McCutchen, Yasmani Grandal, and Michael A. Taylor all went deep for the home team.
Speaking of Cruz, he had two batted balls that were at least 114 mph and hit a double that went 119.7 mph off the bat.
In the end, the Pirates won 11-10 with Holderman picking up the win and David Bednar getting his seventh win.
The Pirates and Cubs conclude their three-game series on Mother’s Day with a 1:35 pm ET start time. Bailey Falter is expected to face Kyle Hendricks.
Pirates Lineup
DH - Andrew McCutchen
LF - Bryan Reynolds
SS - Oneil Cruz
RF - Connor Joe
CF - Jack Suwinski
3B - Jared Triolo
1B - Rowdy Tellez
C - Joey Bart
2B - Alika Williams
Cubs Lineup
SS - Nico Hoerner
DH - Seiya Suzuki
CF - Cody Bellinger
3B - Christopher Morel
1B - Patrick Wisdom
RF - Michael Tauchman
LF - Ian Happ
2B - Nick Madrigal
C - Miguel Amaya
Pitching Matchup
PIT - Bailey Falter (2-2, 4.34 ERA, 37.1 IP, 9 BB, 26 K)
CHC - Kyle Hendricks (0-3, 12.00 ERA, 21 IP, 7 BB, 16 K)
Yesterday’s Feature
With Paul Skenes making his major league debut on Saturday, Ryan Palencer took a look at how the former first-overall pick deals with pressure through mental strength
Today’s Feature
David Matoma was one of the most intriguing names in the lower levels of the Pirates system going into this season. He’s made two appearances for the FCL Pirates this year, the second of which I was in attendance for. I go over my observations on not only him but two other pitchers in the system—Carlos Castillo and Peyton Stumbo.
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When Shelton goes into his obligatory postgame babbling about key hits and missed opportunities, it’d be nice if someone would ask him whether penciling in Tellez and his automatic oh-fer most days isn’t a missed opportunity. That’s four ABs he could have given to somebody who, unlike Tellez, might have done something useful. It’s easy to pick on Grandal as the goat, but the impact of that daily oh-fer gets lost in the more obvious dramatic moments.
I remember when I thought the back end of this bullpen was going to be a strength for this team…