Through 115 games of the 2022 season the Pittsburgh Pirates find themselves in the cellar of the NL Central and currently in a battle for Top 3 odds in the newly created Draft Lottery.
To start the homestand the Pirates will welcome the bottom of the AL East in the Boston Red Sox.
While they’re at the bottom of the AL East, the Red Sox are also floating around .500 and within 4.5 games of a Wildcard spot. All five teams in the AL East have the potential to reach the playoffs this season whereas the bottom three teams in the NL Central are battling for the best draft odds.
Since the All-Star break the Pirates have managed to win six games compared to sixteen losses.
One would hope that the final 47 games of the season would provide some clarity as to the Pirates future vision in the short term. The biggest clarification that has presented itself is that if the Pirates intend to contend in the very near future, then they’ll likely need to seek outside additions by way of trades and the free agent market.
Red Sox @ Pirates
Time: 7:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Mitch Keller (4-8, 4.25)
Red Sox Starter: Nick Pivetta (8-9, 4.51)
Keller Notes: Mitch Keller will be making his 21st start on the season and 23rd overall appearance. In his last start Keller had his stretch of six games of reaching at least six innings pitched snapped. From an fWAR standpoint this has been Keller’s most productive season of his career, amassing 1.5 fWAR so far with his rookie campaign in 2019 of 48 IP being second at 1.3 fWAR. If we look at Baseball Reference it agrees that this has easily been Keller’s best season with 1.3 bWAR while 2020 was second with 0.6 bWAR. Baseball Reference did not like Keller’s 2019 season as much giving it his lowest value of his four seasons at -0.9 bWAR.
UPDATE: Ke’Bryan Hayes to the IL. Kevin Padlo gets called up
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Back in the Burgh#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/RivGReFf7d
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 16, 2022
Red Sox
1. Tommy Pham LF
2. Rafael Devers 3B
3. JD Martinez DH
4. Alex Verdugo RF
5. Christian Arroyo 2B
6. Eric Hosmer 1B
7. Kikè Hernández SS
8. Reese McGuire C
9. Jarren Duran CF
