The Pittsburgh Pirates (24-20) take on the Arizona Diamondbacks (25-20) in game two of a three-game series at PNC Park on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is at 4:05 PM.
Mitch Keller (5-1, 2.38) will be on the mound, in his first start since being named as the National League Player of the Week. He has thrown shutout ball in each of his last two starts, including a complete game to start that mini-stretch.
The Diamondbacks will be going with 24-year-old right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (0-1, 8.59) in his fourth career start.
Here are some links for today:
**Pirates won big over the Diamondbacks last night
**Pirates had some bullpen activity before yesterday’s game. Anthony Murphy looked at that bullpen earlier in the day.
**Some top prospects on the mound last night, while Altoona couldn’t find any hits. A bright spot was Henry Davis still reaching base twice.
**A closer look at Thomas Harrington’s success
**Colin Selby heads to the IL. Potentially bad timing for him with Underwood Jr being injured. Pirates also released a lower level lefty
**Pirates gave an update on Underwood before the game. He is doing better today, so he will be reevaluated tomorrow. He may not miss any time, but he’s not available today.
**A new mock draft, same old names at the top. There are some big games coming up on the college baseball schedule.
Pirates Draft Prospects: The Final Decision Could Be Made After Some Big Upcoming Games
UMPIRE SCORECARD
Umpire: Chris Segal
Final: D-backs 3, Pirates 13#Dbacks // #LetsGoBucs#AZvsPIT // #PITvsAZMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/zRpqtHJ3YT pic.twitter.com/u7KwkwKDw6
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) May 20, 2023
LINEUPS
Pirates
(D)Back at it for Game 2.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/ny3qjXmsem— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 20, 2023
Diamondbacks
Game 46. #ArizonaBorn pic.twitter.com/ZdLnArPYqW
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) May 20, 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.
Is Peralta a reliever now?
Davis with #10 . In Altoona. Seriously, wtf??
davis and Rodriguez could split catching duties in AAA. Is not like they are catching 5-6 games a week.
This would make sense to me
Davis threw out a guy at second today from right field.
🙁
Pulled after 84 pitches?
Bullpen right away giving up not just the tying run but also the lead?
:((
Good news for today, Liover’s 2 for 2 with 2 homers.
Liover’s really hitting now. Light bulb came on, I guess.
And he’s showing the ability to lay off some pitches. If he could get rid of the yips throwing, he could make it to Pittsburgh fairly quick. Still has work to do but the approach with the bat is encouraging.
I hope someone takes Shelton out for a beer tonight and explains what it means to have a dominant starter and explain how to use him. That loss was obviously because Stephenson wasn’t good tonight, but he should not have been out there in the 7th.
Every MLB bullpen blows up from time to time. Blame here is on the offense : even Hayes hit should have been caught and then we couldn’t capitalize on chances to expand the lead
Yep. Failure to add on hardly ever gets cited, but it loses a lot of games.
Another thing not getting noticed is Carlos Santana. He looks OK because of the historic disaster BC created at first last year, but he’s really not good. His 94 wRC+ is well below avg at 1B and cleanup. The shift ban seems to be helping. His BABIP is up 74 pts. But his hitting is still down from last year, which wasn’t too good to begin with.
I guess the FO failed to notice that he’s 37. He doesn’t have much power any more. If you check the power-related measures at Statcast, he’s anywhere from below avg to well below in all of them. On a team trying to win, he’s a bench bat.
Just unfortunate that we lost Choi, and of course Cruz. A platoon of Santana Choi would have gone a long way to fill the black hole that we have, had and will have in 1b. Santana was not meant to play this many games.
C’mon Jason, I want to see your Hal Smith imitation
Some over managing, keller had plenty of pitches left to go 7.
Maddening! Why have a guy that is developing into an Ace if you are not going to use him as such. That previous inning was a fluke of infield hits. He was still dominating. Just leave him in for the 7th. That is not a difficult decision.
It was the right move, Stephenson just didn’t execute his pitches. Or at least that’s the gist of what Shelton will say after the game.
It was a possible move, but not necessarily the “right” move, and also not necessarily the “wrong” move either. Of course, ultimately the players must execute, which is why you want as many excellent players as possible, nevertheless you win with your best players, and Mitch is now one of our best. It is a stronger move because he is the better player. If it goes well, that leaves fewer moving parts, presumably your two best relievers in the 8th and 9th. There is no guarantee, because perhaps Keller comes out and does what Stephenson did, but the manager should let his best players win or lose it when possible, and that was entirely possible tonight with Keller dominating for 6 innings and only at 84 pitches. Leave. Him. In.
My post was actually meant to be sarcastic, suggesting that in Shelton’s mind he never makes a mistake and the losses are only because the players didn’t execute. Sure enough, in his postgame comments Shelton blamed execution and gave an explanation for his decision to remove Keller that even Keller (respectfully) disagreed with.
So yes, when you have the choice between getting an inning out of your best pitcher or your #3 /4 reliever, you always should go with your best. It was a dumb move. Unfortunately, Shelton has shown no ability/desire to reflect and learn from mistakes so I’m sure we’ll see this again. Yesterday was a game (we’ve had several) where I chalk up a large portion of the difference between winning and losing to the manager (the offense also deserves blame, and Stephenson–I know his overall stats are fine but I don’t like seeing him in high leverage situations).
Right on chappy but TN was being sarcastic.
Was going to say much the same. Mitch pitched another quality start and worked well to limit what could have been a really inning. The game was set up for Stephenson to work is usual 7th and I would have gone that route myself. Stephenson did dot get the job done today. Time for the bats to pick up Stephenson and Keller up.
If you want to ride a horse ,you stay on the horse, 84 pitches come on.
You also don’t want to over work your horse either. If Mitch would have given up those same 2 runs, everyone would have been wondering why Mitch was left in and why Stephenson not brought in do work the 7th like he is supposed to. The right decision in my mind.
That’s loser talk
I guess we should agree to disagree. Neither of us will convince the other so, we each have a differing opinion. 😁
Well, that sucks…..
Pat on the back for Keller. 6 innings, 2 runs allowed is good work.
#ExtendKKKKKKKKeller!
Good gritty inning that you want to see out of your pitcher if indeed he is to be an ace. Some ugliness but limit the opposition to just the one run
Right call to take him out though. Had a tough time getting out of that inning, even if nothing was particularly hard hit.
[3 minutes later] … or maybe not.
I agree that Mitch should have been lifted. That has been Stephenson’s inning and he did not get it done today.
A few insurance runs would be welcome
Limit the damage here keller
It just show how difficult it is to toss as many scoreless innings as he did, hit batter and two balls that didn’t leave the infield, granted one of them was a wonderful play!
On lameday rn but seemed like an unlucky few breaks there
This is like pitching in a rocking chair
Bae with the lead of single……Go Bae Go!!
Poop….. Helleva throw and helleva tag…..
In my best Mel Allen voice, How about that!
Sound just like him!
psst, who is Mel Allen?
Was a Yankees play by play guy but I remember him from “This Week I Baseball” from the 70’s and 80’s. Was his catch phase for a great play. They had him as one of the booth guys in the Naked Gun movie. He used the phase in that movie when they had the odd plays in the highlight montage.
in Hayes
Hedges on. Will this be the catalyst for a big inning like last night?
Magic 8 ball says yes.
Table setter!
Hedges is a hitting machine……
Fun facts – In games 1-13 in May the Pirates scored 20 runs. In games 14 and 15, they scored 21 runs. Last night was the 5th time this season the team scored in double figures. Last year, all season, they hit double digits a total of 3 times.
Next time, he goes 32 scoreless.
Shelton and Cherington finally found an app that spits out a good lineup?
Bucs -1.5 +133. Need another Keller shutout and at least 2 today boys.
Let’s go Bucs!
any injury update on Jarlin Garcia?
ready to trade Suwinski to the Angels for Matt Moore
I said to my daughter as we were watching the game that the ump’s scorecard was going to be pretty ugly. I’m surprised it wasn’t worse, and even more surprised that it wasn’t even one of the three worst, in terms of relative accuracy, from last night. I guess the keyword there is relative.