The Pittsburgh Pirates travel across the state to visit the Philadelphia Phillies for the weekend.
At the end of July the Phillies came to Pittsburgh for a four game tilt that ended in the Pirates being swept. The Phillies currently hold the 2nd Wild Card spot behind fellow NL East club — that just left Pittsburgh demoralized with another sweep — Atlanta Braves.
As a whole the Phillies have been strong on both sides of the ball. For hitting they have the 7th highest OPS in the MLB (.738 OPS) while their pitching staff have the 10th best ERA (3.77). One area where the Pirates may show a competitive advantage (if even just slightly) is defensively, as Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez would likely agree.
The Pirates lead the league with 88 total errors to the Phillies 55 errors. When looking at Fangraphs Fielding leaderboards they tell a different story. Using Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) the Pirates check in at 22nd with -4 while the Phillies are 27th at -28.
Citizens Bank Park has been very friendly to hitter’s over the years as one of the friendliest HR hitter parks, per Baseball Savant Park Factors Leaderboard. Phillies’ pitchers have given up the 6th fewest HR’s at 114 total while the Pirates sit 15th fewest with 130 HR’s given up. For the defense to play a part the biggest thing will be keeping the ball in the park.
Pirates @ Phillies
Time: 7:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Bryse Wilson (2-7, 5.74)
Phillies Starter: Zack Wheeler (11-7, 3.07)
Wilson Notes: In his last start against the Cincinnati Reds, Bryse Wilson completed seven innings for the first time in his MLB career. Wilson hasn’t been dominant but he’s been dependable. He’s completed at least five innings in each of his last five starts since being recalled. Covering 28.2 innings in those five starts he’s had a 4.40 ERA giving up 14 earned runs in that span. Depending on the off-season Bryse could either have an inside track on one of the last rotation spots or be a strong long relief or depth starter option.
UPDATE: Holderman injured. Ramirez returns
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Wilson on the mound tonight.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/Nr0qPChZKD
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 26, 2022
Phillies
1. Kyle Schwarber (L) LF
2. Rhys Hoskins (R) 1B
3. Alec Bohm (R) 3B
4. Bryce Harper (L) DH
5. J.T. Realmuto (R) C
6. Nick Castellanos (R) RF
7. Bryson Stott (L) SS
8. Jean Segura (R) 2B
9. Matt Vierling (R) CF
Raised in Cranberry Twp, PA, Jeff attended Kent State University and worked in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, before moving to New Orleans in September of 2012. His background is as an Engineering Designer, but he has always had a near unhealthy passion for Pittsburgh sports. Hockey and Baseball are his 1A and 1B, combined with his mathematical background, it's led to Jeff's desire in diving into analytics. Jeff is known as Bucs'N'Pucks in the comments, and began writing for Pirates Prospects in 2022 after contributing so many useful bits of information in the comment section.
And the great Bryce Wilson’s gets yet another unearned start…with predictable results. Followed up by Thompson who also should not be in the major leagues. Supposedly a top 10 farm system but no pitchers good enough to push these two, Beebe, and Underwood off the roster. BC makes NH look competent.
5 ip 1 er isn’t a bad night. Guy doesn’t deserve to start, and isn’t but not in mlb? Relax. This isn’t our year anyway
NH was competent.
Yeah that Archer trade was really competent!
In a legal sense, maybe.
Castro only charged with one error in the first, although he was responsible for giving the Phillies six outs and totally skewering Wilson.
Now Newman hands them a run. Keller was let down by the defense Wednesday.
These guys have looked totally rattled in the field for two weeks .
I guess it’s fitting that Wilson and Thompson are both in there getting shelled. I’m more than a little tired of guys who, on a really really good day, are borderline fifth starters.
Missed the live game, just watched the first inning. Wilson pitched his ass off. 8 pitches to Hoskins. 11 pitches to Boehm and gets a weak dribbler. Two errors, 1 physical, 1 mental by Castro and/or Newman. Had Harper 1-2 and gets a weak single. Gets Realmuto to hit ground out after being behind 2-0. Castellanos hits a jam shot dumps into RF. Segura just has the bat control to punch hit betw first and second.
The Phillies are freaking professional hitters. That inning was not on Wilson. Only one ball hit hard by Hoskins after 7 high quality pitches.
Not saying Thompson is actually good, but he acquitted himself decently tonight, 2 runs over 5 innings.
Yeah, he was in borderline fifth starter mode. Yippee.
Wilson is not close to borderline 5th starter…how many starters have ERAs north of 6 and get as many starts as Wilson? Eckersley was spot on in his comments about the Pirates organization. Total incompetence
Hold on a second, didn’t our management team spot underlying and overlooked strengths with both these guys? I mean all our FAs and trade targets were not properly evaluated by their former teams, right?
Their former teams failed to evaluate properly their potential for future contract savings due to crappy performance.
BTW: there is a reasonable chance that the Pirates will not win their first game in 2023 until April 17…the season starts on March 30, which would be 0-16…
Nah they’ll at least go 1-15.
Let’s see the Pirates trade the only real major league pitcher they had for what??? nothing but keep running these jokers out there…Yes, they certainly are going to be a winning team real soon…
Yeah the Bucs should have kept him and he might have gotten them 3-4 wins before he tested the Market. If he should pitch to end the year like he started it, someone will surely over pay him and he will be gone and the Bucs would have nothing if they did not trade him. If he pitches like his last time out, they will have a shot to resign him if they want to and since they traded him they will will also have a pitcher with major league experience and a 1B prospect.
They have nothing now for him, BTW they have an abundance of pitchers with major league experience the only problem is none should have that experience, and wonderful another prospect, oh boy can’t wait till he develops in 2027…
I know you wanted them to keep Quintana and extend him. 1) Quintana would have wanted to extend and not test the market for that to happen. Considering the start he had, he would not want to extend with any team right now unless they offered an overpayment. 2) His last couple of starts with St. Louis were not good. I for one am not sure he would be worth signing a long term deal with, even 2-3 years considering his last couple of years history and it looks like he is finally regressing the last 2 outings with the Cards.
Rays Extend Tyler Glasnow Through 2024…How about that…
Extending him 1:year into his FA years. Good move for both sides. Glasnow gets $5.35 million for 2023 his last arb year. A slight raise over his 2022 number of $5.1 million. He will get $25 million for 2024. Good for Glasnow as he gets a good bump for 2024 to prove he is healthy. Good for Tampa in that they get Glasnow for a reasonable 2023 and only risking big money for one year not knowing how he will perform after TJ surgery. Hope for his sake he does well. No one will know how the arm will be until he starts pitching in games
Wow…..that’s almost Scherzer money $25 mil!! Really surprising to me. Surely that news will get back to Bob and maybe influence him that $3 mil isn’t really enough to get a good TOR FA pitcher this winter!
It’s a lot for them, but not even 60% of Scherzer’s AAV.
Out of process of elimination, the Phillies will be the NL team I root for in the playoffs with the Padres second, assuming both beat out the Brewers (who would be second to one of those other teams). But I’ll still be rooting for the Bucs this weekend. I’ll actually be driving to NJ this weekend and briefly considered adding a stop in Philly to catch Saturday’s game, but it would add at least three hours to the trip and given the state of the Pirates I just couldn’t get motivated enough to give it a second thought.
If you had an extra million sitting around, you’d likely be looking at an immediate 37% return on that money by betting the Phillies tonight
Would you do it? Not me
I thought wheeler was injured?
Well, crap. MLB app had him as the listed starter
He is. Somebody named Bailey Falter is starting.
Somebody held the Bucs to 2 runs in 5 innings a few weeks ago
Any random street person can do that.
True dat!
My Phillie buddies are licking their chops. I remind them of what we did to the Dodgers and Brewers. I hope we do well. But……..
So were your buddies licking their chops before or after you mentioned the Dodgers and Brewers???
Has nothing to do with the game. Hungry for a Philly Cheesesteak. LOL