The Pittsburgh Pirates (18-8) take on the Washington Nationals (9-15) in a day/night doubleheader in Washington. You can find the starting pitchers for game one below. Game two information will be added to the article at the bottom prior to the 6:05 PM start, with a new title up top once the lineups are made available.
**Miguel Andujar has joined the Pirates, and he will be staying after this doubleheader. There’s a Wil Crowe update here that isn’t good.
**Anthony Murphy takes a closer look at Tres Gonzalez and his solid start to the season.
**Last night’s Prospect Watch was up late, in case you missed it.
**Endy Rodriguez has returned to action…sort of.
PIRATES @ NATIONALS
Game Time: 1:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Rich Hill (2-2, 4.50)
Dodgers Starter: Patrick Corbin (1-3, 5.88)
Pirates Lineups:
Game 1 vs. the Nationals.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/wQP6E9NhT4— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 29, 2023
Nationals Lineups:
CJ Abrams has driven in 4 runs in his last one game.#NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/KoxoN2aSPg
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) April 29, 2023
INDIANAPOLIS VS COLUMBUS
Game Time: 6:35 PM EST
Projected Starter: Luis Ortiz (1-1, 2.31)
Luis Ortiz gets the start today. We will see what we get from him. He was picking up a lot of strikeouts in his first three games, but working with high pitch counts that limited his outings. His last two games saw him collect just three strikeouts total, yet both were solid performances. Somewhere in between those two results would be perfect, giving you a more efficient strike-thrower who misses bats.
ALTOONA AT READING
Game Time: 5:00 PM EST DH
Projected Starter: Aaron Shortridge (1-1, 5.40)
Altoona was rained out yesterday, so they will go for a doubleheader today. No starter is listed for either game.
Aaron Shortridge gets the game one start.
GREENSBORO VS ROME
Game Time: 5:00 PM EST DH
Projected Starter: Po-Yu Chen (0-1, 5.27)
Greensboro had the second half of a doubleheader rained out yesterday, so they will try again for a doubleheader today. Valentin Linarez was scheduled yesterday, but today just has the same two pitchers listed as Altoona (aka TBA)
Po-Yu Chen has been announced as the game one starter.
BRADENTON AT DUNEDIN
Game Time: 6:30 PM EST
Projected Starter: Luis Peralta (0-0, 0.00)
Bradenton has a 12-7 record, best among the four Pirates affiliates. Luis Peralta makes his second start of the season. He had five strikeouts over two innings in his debut. Lefties are notoriously tough on Low-A hitters, especially with the level looking more like raw tool players over a mix of tools/fillers. Peralta has been racking up strikeouts at the level, but lack of control has held him back.
**GAME TWO**
After winning the opener by a 6-3 score, the Pirates go for the sweep at 6:05 PM
Vince Velasquez (3-2, 3.76) takes on former Pirates pitcher Chad Kuhl (0-1, 7.36)
Here are the lineups:
Pirates
Let’s do it again.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/Fs6Sj5iO6o— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 29, 2023
Nationals
5 million retweets and we'll wear fedoras on the field.#BloomDay🌸 pic.twitter.com/YKQ3iJmTPF
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) April 29, 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.
That’s Velasquez’ fourth win. No starter on the Pirates won more than four all last year. Keller and Roansy each won five total, but they each got a win in relief.
The starters as a group are now just six wins short of the total for the starters all last year.
The boys are boppin
First time I’ve had to use this option, but the Load More Comments button doesn’t work on mobile.
Amazing day of Bucco baseball!
Work fine for me on Android using Chrome.
Jason Delay is now hitting .390
I know we are paying Hedges $5m but can you really keep the guy out of the lineup right now hitting like this ?
Nope! Let ‘em play!
RAISE IT!
When it looked really bad during ST, I sarcastically wrote that all would be forgotten when we start the season 10-5. Now this, WTF?…
Try to stay sarcastic for the rest of the season.
Easy. I’m actually wearing a shirt that reads; sarcasm. It’s what I do best.
Always remember, spring training means less than nothing.
We always forget!
WhoooooooHooooooooo!
Win number 20 on April 29th!!! Last year it took until May 30th to get there.
> Crazy stat for you: A Pirates starting pitcher (Jose Quintana) finally earned a win in the team’s 28th game last season, a major league record.
> Tonight is game No. 28 for the ’23 group. Should this hold, Vince Velasquez would earn the 15th win for a Pirates starter this season.
This stat too!!
There goes our shutout..damn
Bummer.
Kinda sucks to take Cody out, but the trouble with the starters pitching so well is that half the bullpen has lhad little to do.
It was the right thing to do.
For Drew, Cody, and Miguel…….
This Lane Thomas guy is certainly no Eric Kratz.
Wow. Been a long time since the Bucs have looked this good.
Guess Andujar wants to stay too.
We just don’t stop!
Maggi first xbh! Haha
Maggi might as well just swing for the fences.
He’s on fire!
ROY!
2 innings scoreless for Cody! New long man possibility!
Nat’s fans can take solace in the fact that they have the second pick in the draft this year.
Must be some really sad sack team drafting ahead of them.
Not as sad as the A’s are this year, obscene!
Working on the chance for a top choice next season as well… The tank is on!
Cody Bolton Debut. No sweat…… 1-2-3 with a K and under 10 pitches 😁😁
Maybe way too early to say but he does look like an upgrade to Crowe … 🙄
On another note, Ortiz is looking pretty good tonight, eh?
Yeah, five shut-out innings before he gave up a couple in the sixth. Seems to be a trend lately with our top starters. I will take those first five and give him a Mulligan for the sixth inning. He’s definitely our next man up.
This is really too good to be true. And we play Tampa Bay this week, in the Battle of the Titans!
Maggi getting a hit made me tear up a little.
And now Cody Bolton gets an out on his 1st pitch…is this the greatest day in Pirates history?
Cody Bolton, here to stay.
They could give him a shot at a three inning save.
Good luck, Cody!!! 👊🏻👊🏻
Just realized the Gnats have Chavis at third. They’re hurting.
Best week of Drew’s life. 😁
Get that ball for the Hall Of Fame!!
Happy for him. I bet it means a lot.
I’m not crying YOU’RE crying!
# Maggi
Hell ya! Good for you Maggi!
Story book wrapped in a blowout.
And Maggi gets his hit, and an RBI to boot! My heart is melting
Good for him.
First hit, first RBI!!!!
All the good things are happening now.
Jason Delay has an OPS over 1.000. I’m beyond words for what’s happening!
Really shut me up on saying call up Endy or Davis. Not complaining!
Maggi is in!
Delay has been putting up good at bats.
Delay triples and Maggi up for Hayes.
They should’ve waited until they put the position player in to pitch….I will boo myself….
Six innings, six K’s, no runs and NO WALKS!!! Holy crap but what more can you ask for from your SP?
I expected a no-hitter at the very least. DFA him.
I wouldn’t have believed this offseason that by May I’d be looking forward to VV’s starts.
No base runners? 😁😁
Well, he already gave up a few base base runners so….. jinx already averted 😁
Maybe Ben should consider extending Suwinski.
He changed his stance so the old book on Jack has little value. But a new book will emerge, so let’s see if Jack handles the league’s response before committing years to the kid.
The list should be long by now.
i would say several agents have been contacted and discussion have occurred.
As a Pirates fan, I think I’m more prone to have empathy for teams taking ass kickings so once it gets to 12-0 I’m now feeling like “hey, come on, that’s enough.”
I say…….
The Pirates were probably not a good team for the Gnats to face right now.
The way this team is swinging it and hurling it, you could probably insert about 28 other teams in for Gnats and be right.
114mph exit velocity, 444ft apparently. 😎
Man was I so wrong about Suwinski! I was 100% sure Pirates needed to send him down to start year. I was 100% wrong.
Same here. I was all aboard the Swags train, thinking his defense alone would be more valuable than having Jack K away. I’m glad to be wrong. Captain Jack has honestly been unbelievable
You weren’t alone. There are a lot of Pirate fans who were wrong about a lot of Pirate players. I’m just sitting back and enjoying the ride as far as it takes me.
OMG