Gameday 96: Pirates look to snap seven game losing streak
Mike Burrows vs TBD
The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped their seventh straight game on Friday, losing to the Minnesota Twins 2-1.
Paul Skenes allowed two runs over five innings, but lost his eighth game of the season. That was the last game before the All-Star break for him.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit an RBI double in the fourth inning, which gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Trevor Larnach hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth, giving the Twins the only runs they needed.
Mike Burrows will get the start for the Pirates, who is coming off tossing five shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners.
First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 pm ET.
Pirates Lineup
1B - Spencer Horwitz
DH - Andrew McCutchen
RF - Bryan Reynolds
2B - Nick Gonzales
CF - Oneil Cruz
3B - Ke’Bryan Hayes
LF - Jack Suwinski
C - Joey Bart
SS - Isiah Kiner-Falefa
Twins Lineup
CF - Byron Buxton
LF - Willi Castro
RF - Trevor Larnach
C - Ryan Jeffers
SS - Brooks Lee
DH - Matt Wallner
3B - Royce Lewis
1B - Ty France
2B - Kody Clemens
Pitching Matchup
PIT - Mike Burrows (1-2, 3.63 ERA, 39.2 IP, 41 K)
MIN - Cole Sands (3-3, 4.38 ERA, 37 IP, 29 K)
Yesterday’s Feature
MLB Draft 2025: Pitchers to watch outside the first round
We already took a look at the potential options the Pittsburgh Pirates will have with their first-round pick, so over the next couple of days, we will explore some of the hitters and pitchers I like that should be available the rest of the way.
Today’s Feature
MLB Draft 2025: Hitters to watch outside the first round
We have now looked at the potential targets with the sixth overall pick for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and some pitchers beyond the first round to monitor, so to wrap this up, hitters.
Bucs on Deck: Pittsburgh Pirates Top 30 Midseason Update
We are past the halfway mark of the 2025 minor league season, and it seems like a perfect time for an update on our Top Prospect list, which has been expanded to 30 players.
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I'm going to history nerd out for a minute. With their inevitable loss today (it's 9-0 now), the Pirates franchise will be one game over .500 all-time. You might read elsewhere that they are at .500 after today's game. The difference is that there was an 1884 game that somehow over the years got lost from the standings. It was still there in 1885, it never went anywhere in 1884. The Alleghenys won on August 15th over Baltimore. I have all of the proof, can't share it here in the comments obviously.
More nerd stuff is that for a time the 1890 team was credited with 114 losses instead of the 113 they have now, which is probably a very odd mistake. One game played in Altoona was a real game that one paper called an exhibition and somehow that's what everyone believed. The problem is that the late season game in Wheeling was said by Alleghenys owner to be an exhibition game and that one is in the standings. So I can't fully embrace the 114 losses after significant research. I think they are just counting the wrong game as real.
So anyway, if you're still reading, today's loss puts them one game over the .500 mark all-time. What is significant about that is that the franchise has been above .500 the whole time since a win on August 22, 1903. A 122-year streak is about to be broken, possibly tomorrow. So feel free to correct anyone who says they dropped to .500 today. They are reading the Baseball-Reference numbers, which are off by one win.
Skenes to start the ASG.