The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped their first series after the All-Star break to the Miami Marlins, two games to one. They now head on a short road trip to Wrigley for two games against the Chicago Cubs.
The good news is that Mitch Keller had another strong showing, and Oneil Cruz provided a majestic homerun off of Sandy Alcantara.
The bad news is that the Pirates offense otherwise looked anemic for the majority of the game. The roster currently only has two players with an OPS at or above league average (.707), and those two are Ben Gamel with a .708 OPS and Jason Delay — through only 39 PA’s — with an .885 OPS.
The Cubs have a league average offense (14th), but their pitching is only a spot (25th) ahead of the Pirates (26th) for Team ERA.
There haven’t been many rumors surrounding the Pirates and potential trades, but I for one can’t wait until we get to the deadline so I can determine whether I’m going to watch many more Pirates games this year, or impatiently focus on FCL Pirates’ box scores for draft pick debuts.
Pirates @ Cubs
Time: 8:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: JT Brubaker (2-8, 4.02)
Marlins Starter: Adrian Sampson (0-1, 3.34)
Brubaker Notes: JT Brubaker had arguably the best start of his career just before the All-Star break. He shutout the Marlins through seven innings while also fanning nine batters on July 13th. On Monday he’ll go up against a familiar name in Adrian Sampson.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
In Chicago for two.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/ON7zjj5bNP
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 25, 2022
Cubs
1. Rafael Ortega (L) CF
2. Willson Contreras (R) C
3. Seiya Suzuki (R) RF
4. Ian Happ (S) LF
5. Nico Hoerner (R) SS
6. Patrick Wisdom (R) 3B
7. Frank Schwindel (R) DH
8. Alfonso Rivas (L) 1B
9. Christopher Morel (R) 2B
