The Pittsburgh Pirates (7-4) take on the Houston Astros (5-7) in games three of a three-game series at PNC Park on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is at 12:35 PM
The Pirates are sending out veteran Rich Hill (0-1, 10.00) for his third start of the season. He will be going up against right-handed pitcher Jose Urquidy (0-0, 3.86), who is also making his third start of the season.
Ji-hwan Bae will be making his first big league start at shortstop. He hasn’t played the position a lot recently, switching away from it completely in 2021, before playing 24 games there at Indianapolis last year. Including winter ball, he has 101 games at the position in pro ball.
Lineups can be found below
**Here’s a look at what is going on down at Pirate City now that all of the full-season teams are in action.
A total of 66 players are down in Extended Spring Training, doing rehab, staying ready in case they need to be used with a full-season team, or just getting ready for the Florida Complex League season.
** Today’s Prospect Watch has already been posted because we have two early games going on. Indianapolis had an 11:05 AM start time, while Altoona will be playing at the same time as the Pirates.
**Anthony Murphy has his daily morning article, looking at the how the Pirates are handling an early-season hurdle.
**Dylan Crews went 2-for-5, with two singles and a walk in LSU’s mid-week game at Tulane.
**If any other news pops up during the game, we will post it here.
UMPIRE SCORECARD
A solid job of umpiring yesterday. Got everything correct in the bottom 80% of the strike zone (and below the zone)
Umpire: Adam Hamari
Final: Astros 4, Pirates 7#Ready2Reign // #LetsGoBucs#HOUvsPIT // #PITvsHOUMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/Mm3AzQmAoH pic.twitter.com/CAJ4afdwNr
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) April 12, 2023
LINEUPS
Pirates
Series finale vs. the Astros.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 KDKA 100.1 FM & 1020 AM | The PRN #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/ZwYnX8TSXI— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 12, 2023
Astros
Wednesday wrap-up.
🕦: 11:35 AM
📺: @ATTSportsNetSW
📻: @SportsTalk790 | Spanish: 93.3 FM #Ready2Reign x @reliantenergy pic.twitter.com/7NJUElgCXN— Houston Astros (@astros) April 12, 2023
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Astros outfielders are just.. yeah.
That was bad……
That wasn’t .. ideal
Just saw that FG posted an article titled something along the lines of BRey is hitting his way out of pittsburgh. I won’t read it, i don’t want to give that thought power
“If this current opportunity passes without a deal coming together, Reynolds may well be hitting himself out of Pittsburgh, just at a time the team is showing signs of life.”
This is the last sentence of that article. I guess basically the article thinks the Pirates will never choose to keep Reynolds regardless of extension. Weird take
Well, if the issue is down to an opt out after 2026, of course he is hitting himself out of Pittsburgh. If he keeps hitting then he will choose to opt out and he will leave as some team will overpay him at that point. If he does not hit, and the pirates sign him, he will be an albatross to the team in the 3 years after 2026. Common sense stuff.
And all because Nickles didn’t have the sense to give him a decent, long term deal over a year ago. They lock up a bat like Hayes’ and balk at pay the extra $50 million over 8 years. $6+ million a year keeps Nickles from getting Reynolds under contract? Cheap owner. Doesn’t care.
We have no idea what was offered and what was asked. To be honest, I believe Reynolds is really intent on hitting FA after 2025 or 2026 at the latest, He was ok with the money but the mechanics of a deal with the opt opt after 2026 only protects Reynolds if he does not produce. I do not blame Reynolds in the least as this will be his one and only shot at a FA deal that will give his max return. If I am Reynolds I would be asking the same thing. Put all the risk on the Bucs. From reports, rumors had it that he was looking for $134 million which would have been almost double Hayes. We have no idea if the opt out was asked for with that ask by Reynolds as well. This is one contract that may not be as much as being cheap as you say bot more like Reynolds really wanting to bet on himself and test the FA one time while he still can.
We locked up Hayes for his defense. That was his carrying tool. He didn’t hit I. The minors either. Only fans who insist that all that matters is the bat don’t understand this and keep complaining about Hayes. He contributed more wins than anyone on the team last season.
I’m not complaining about Hayes’ contract. He’s worth it. I’m complaining about a POS who’s been pocketing profits at the expense of fielding a competitive team and when it comes to signing a real talent for the majority of his best years, Nickles insults said talent with an embarrassing offer that was guaranteed to push Reynolds away. Nickles is a turd and Pittsburgh media try to downplay his cheap, worthless actions.
not listening! lol
I didn´t think Id like Santana when they signed him but man that dude is growing on me
IMO that should be it for Hill, don’t let him go back out there to face the top of their lineup for a 3rd time. Let Crowe go 2 IP & piece it together from there.
But what if it’s DeJong!,!,!!
Now would be a nice time to “hit”…
What is this onfield delay on lameday?
looks like the home plate umpire got a dislocated finger on a foul ball.
Supposedly swapping umps cause of one breaking his finger
Home plate ump injured.
Hope everythings alright!
Barrel rates look great if you rarely put the ball in play
Also I dont know what Hayes’ babip is but I feel like it’s at negative
I’m still encouraged by Hayes so far, if he keeps his new launch angle he’s gonna have a good year.
Hayes can’t hit and never will.
And that’s ok! He never hit in the Mikita either. The worst thing that could ever happen to him was his hit first call up. Everyone thought he was here to hit when the whole carrying tool was always defense. Let it be. Lay off him. Stop talking about it. He gave us more wins last year than any other player on the team without hitting. It’s fine!!!
I don’t buy fWAR defensive overhype.
He’ll hit so many doubles if he can just tweak the launch angle. I’m hopeful also!!
He will rebound when it swings back his way!
I like Hill’s pace of pitching whether he gets shelled or not. He seems to just keep pitching whatever happens behind him. I guess that comes with almost 20 years of experience in the big leagues.
Hill through 2 with no HRs. Maybe it is his lucky day.
Cutch is on fire!
Getting out of the first inning without giving up a couple runs feels like we have a lead! Let’s keep it. Hill has to love this weather, nice on the old bones. Hee hee
damn – – look at that belt on Bae
we need those shiny helmets like notre dame
Shelton continues to play Santana on the wrong side of the platoon. Hell he isn’t platooning him at all. Choi is really getting short shrift. This isn’t Yoshi. This guy can hit. That home run was 110 off the bat. He has actual upside still at age 30.
What the eff is Cherington doing allowing Shelton to bench him more than half the games while playing Santana every single day.
7-4 right now and sitting in 2nd place. If they had a losing record, i could see your point.
Uh, that’s really not how we should judge things. Process matters as much as results in small samples.
Well then. Maybe Choi would have been a boon.
We’re 7-4 because of good pitching, defense and Bryan Reynolds
Maybe I’m nitpicking something small, so am i the only one who is frustrated with Pirates lineups so far? Conner Joe has 4 hits in the home opener, then benched the following 2 games. Choi finally turns the corner after hitting b2b HR’s & against a righty today is benched.
I get that they have a deep bench & want to keep guys fresh for the long stretch, however, bench guys after they struggle, not when they’re feeling good with their swings.
This is an even smaller gripe, but it always seems like the Bucs are the last to put out their starting lineups, the other team always announces theirs before the bucs.
I get it. It’s like they over analyze everything and forget about the human element. If a guy is hot, let him play. I totally agree with you. Sometimes you overthink things.
Reverse splits. Lefties have an OPS of .606 against, Rigthies OPS at .772. From there I’m guessing the analytics and coaches look at what pitches he throws, versus the splits for the pirates batter against those pitches, etc….. Whenever there is something odd in the line the answer is usually not “Shelton is stupid”, but something to do with stats. Now, one may want to complain it is being over-thought, but I’m guessing most managers do what Shelton does with the lineup, and a number of questionable full time starters.
Shelton is out of control. I think they are last to put out the lineups because he spends hours pondering reasons to change it over and over. Justifying his insanity.
Cherington needs to give him a talking to. Choi should play against every right hander. Santana every left handed. And Santana and Cutch alternate at DH-OF-1B. This isn’t as hard as Shelton is making it. It’s absolutely inexcusable. Unprofessional. Anti-analytics.
c’mon, the pitcher has reverse splits.
Last summer, one of the guys I play ball with, who works full time as a baseball coach & trainer, said that the Pirates are one of a couple teams that rely on the computer algorithms to create their lineups, rather than the manager. It’s the only time i’ve ever read or heard that anywhere, & i don’t have the ability to confirm or deny that.
Well, they are 7-4 and not 4-7 seems to be working so far 🙂
Again. That’s not how I personally think the pirates would think about it. So we shouldn’t.
This makes more sense than my imagination where Shelton has 100 different lineups & a very complicated decision tree to choose the best lineup of all
They are always the last to post their lineup and it is annoying and weird.