126 games into the season and a few losses shy of sealing another sub .500 season the Pittsburgh Pirates are running short on starting pitching.
The most recent struggling former Top 100 prospect turned Pirates’ reliever waiver claim pushed into a starting role is going about as well as it normally has. Tyler Beede’s second start against the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 8th gave some promise, but he’s progressively gotten worse each start since. In his latest start he gave up six earned runs in three innings. He is now carrying a 9.60 ERA in his five starts for the Pirates. Beede did have five strikeouts which would be his highest single game total this season.
The Philadelphia Phillies once again didn’t wait long when J.T. Realmuto — the fifth batter of the first inning — came up to bat with the bases loaded and cleared them with a double for a 3-0 lead. The Phillies then added two runs in the second inning and their sixth run in the third inning on Nick Castellanos’ thirteenth homerun for a 6.0 lead.
Phillies’ starter Kirk Gibson didn’t face much trouble on the night. In the second inning the Pirates had runners on first and third with two outs but Greg Allen was picked off from 1B. In the fifth inning Allen and Tucupita Marcano each reached on a single, but then Tyler Heineman lined out to LF, before Kevin Newman and Bryan Reynolds each struck out. Bligh Madris would hit a double to lead off the seventh inning, but was left stranded at second when the next three batters got out.
The Newman-Reynolds connection couldn’t capitalize with Kevin Newman reaching base twice on a walk and a single. The Pirates as a team went 0-for-6 with RISP. The lineup had seven batters with an OPS below .700 and four of them are below .600 OPS. Madris creeped over .500 OPS by going 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
On the positive side Chase De Jong continued his solid season out of the bullpen by tossing 3.0 innings of shutout baseball allowing two hits and two walks while also striking out two batters. Eric Stout and Cam Vieaux combined for two shutout innings and five strikeouts to finish off the 6-0 defeat.
Pirates @ Phillies
Time: 1:35 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Roansy Contreras (3-4, 3.86)
Phillies Starter: Noah Syndergaard (8-8, 3.77)
Contreras Notes: Roansy Contreras will be making his 12th start of the season for the Pittsburgh Pirates and coming off the longest outing of his short MLB career. In his last start against the Atlanta Braves Roansy threw seven innings while giving up only two earned runs. On the season he has so far thrown 97.1 innings combined between the minors and MLB. Contreras will look to salvage the series against the Phillies on Sunday.
UPDATE: Robert Stephenson joins the team
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Roansy Day.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/fjZXTRemps
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 28, 2022
Phillies
1. Kyle Schwarber (L) LF
2. Nick Castellanos (R) RF
3. Alec Bohm (R) 1B
4. Bryce Harper (L) DH
5. J.T. Realmuto (R) C
6. Jean Segura (R) 2B
7. Bryson Stott (L) SS
8. Matt Vierling (R) CF
9. Edmundo Sosa (R) 3B
