The Pittsburgh Pirates (21-19) take on the Baltimore Orioles (26-13) on Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards in the finale of the three-game series. First pitch is at 1:35 PM.
Mitch Keller (4-1, 2.72) will be on the mound today, making his first start since his shutout. He will look to stop another losing streak by going up against veteran right-handed pitcher Kyle Gibson (4-2, 4.40), who is making his ninth start of the season.
The Pirates have off tomorrow, before heading to Detroit for a quick two-game series.
Happy Mother’s Day to those who celebrate
Here are links to some news from today. If anything else pops up before the game, we will add the link below:
**Ben Cherington gave updates on Vince Velasquez and Rob Zastryzny, saying both should begin rehab assignments with Indianapolis this week. Velasquez could need just one appearance, but that will be decided once he has made a start. Zastryzny has been out three weeks longer and will need more time.
**Pirates Drop Second Game to Orioles
**Solid Starts from JP Massey and Kyle Nicolas
**Today’s Pirates Prospects Daily looks at Matt Fraizer
**Our weekly Saturday draft article looks at the clear group of top five prospects and how they are all worthy of a #1 pick.
**Today’s Pirates history looks at a six-hit game, as well as two updated bios
**Today’s Card of the Day looks at an interesting offering featuring Tony Pena
UMPIRE SCORECARD
This is what we call an average umpire game
Umpire: D.J. Reyburn
Final: Pirates 0, Orioles 2#LetsGoBucs // #Birdland#PITvsBAL // #BALvsPITMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/Y5OT5Ke3nG pic.twitter.com/LKGe3iU3AC
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) May 14, 2023
LINEUPS
Pirates
Mother's Day Matinee.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/E8W8FoOUic— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 14, 2023
Orioles
Ready for a matinee. pic.twitter.com/H9MhJJBjbQ
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 14, 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.
How do the pirates spell ace? KELLER!
Keller the killer! Not sure I’d trade him straight up for very many pitchers right now. He looks like he’s on his way to becoming one of the best.
The last 15 days he is the best
Per Hedges – Balt. hitters were telling him that Keller has the best stuff they’ve seen this year.
Keller leads MLB in backward K’s
The weird fact about that fact is that is mostly on fastballs, fastballs! This is a guy who had a horrible fastball just over a year ago.
If Mitch doesn’t win NL Pitcher of the week, someone needs to be fired.
I realize I’m being a prisoner of the moment with this comment, but is there a SP not named Shohei who you would trade Mitch for straight up?
His ability to mix and match 5 different high quality pitches with command is just damn special.
He’ll get it.
Last 3 starts 21 innings 13 hits 1 earned run 2 walks 29 k’s.
Pitcher of the month looking good so far, lol.
Pitcher of the month on a team that only has 2 wins total halfway through – both on his starts – would be hilarious
Whoop whoop!
Mitch will be ready by Tuesday right 😏
He needs to man up!
In thinking about these two games by Keller, keep in mind, he probably would have had nearly as good a start in St. Pete if his defense hadn’t let him down.
I remember how to do it!
helmet was off his head at the moment the tag was applied
if Bednar k´s two dudes, we set a new Pirates all time record for strike outs in a game with 17
Pirates had games in 2012 and 2013 with 17 strikeouts over nine innings.
Done
1965 Veale and friends
Another really strong game for Termarr
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=5/14/2023&gamePk=729611&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=playerBreakdown&sportId=14
Signs of life…
Keller 6/70? Gets him to age 34 season and generational wealth. Pitchers are always an injury risk and gamble but could also be a steal and a half based on his last ~35 starts
If they can get him for 6 years for anywhere near 70M they need to get this deal done tonight.
I think it’s close to what it would take, maybe 5/60 with a club option for $15mil or a $5mil buyout. It gives a little insurance to both sides.
I can’t figure the numbers. What I can figure is, now that we have a guy like this, can we just somehow not put him on a glide path to the Yankees?
More like 6/90
Alacantra got 5/$56M, so AAV just over $11M. So that seems in the ballpark, although I’d think his agent would ask for more.
Not a bad comparison considering it looks like pretty similar amount of control remaining. Im sure we could spice it up with a nice option or some significant performance incentives
At this point and I think that Keller knows this, he is worth much more than that to the Pirates and probably the whole league…
Awesome!
I know it is asking a lot from this offense, but I feel like we need to add on a run or two, just to be sure…
I get some big feelings watching keller pound the zone with his whole arsenal, basically saying just come and try to hit it
If he’d knock down a hitter or two every couple innings I’d think I was watching Drysdale or Gibson
This umpiring crew is the worst that I have seen all season.
This is the Mitch Keller we dreamed about 5 years ago.
Man what a story of resilience and a dude working his tail off
That’s what impresses me the most.
Extend Keller
Hey, that’s my line, wanted to wait until he was done to add all the Ks.
#ExtendKKKKKKKKKKKKKeller.
Hello, Bob? You watching this? Bob??
When was the last time that Reynolds homer, it feels like he hit the 5 he currently has in the first two weeks and none since…..
April 7th.
Wow!
Tomorrow not soon enough to send Palacios back to AAA
and Owings. and stop putting Hedges in the line-up. let him catch bullpens.
Now have Keller just dominate like the Cy Young candidate that he is.
This is starting to look like the year Steve Carlton won 27 for the last-place Phillies. They played like a really good team when he pitched and like little leaguers the rest of the time.
I loved Steve Carlton. Somebody asked him how he threw his slider and he responded, “I don’t know. I just grip like that and throw the shit out of it.”
i think that team lost a hundred games. The Pirates are a lot better than that Phillies team. I hope
For some reason they only played 156 games that year finishing 59-97. They may have reached 100 losses if they played those other 6 games, lol.
Good throw nails him. I have to watch Hedges hit 3-4 times a game and watch those kinds of throws to 2nd? BS!
PiratePrimate is an idiot savant who somehow makes bad players better by bad mouthing them.
I’m there with ya. Connor Scott a couple days ago, Hedges to start this thread.
Please God.
just hope he goes out and pitches well and gives them a chance, Doesn’t have to be perfect like last time just a quality start.
Whole lot of pressure on Keller, I think that’s good, let’s see how he reacts.
If he’s going to be our #1 , he has to stop slides and keep us from getting swept. It’s part of the job description
I kinda like the lineup today (other than Hedges).