4-11-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Before the divisional shake-up three decades ago, matchups with the cross-state Phillies were a regular occurrence with heated rivalry pitting the teams and fans alike against each other. While its been a long time since both teams were truly competitive at the same time, stakes are raised heading into this series as the Phillies look to rebound from a slow start while the Pirates try to prove their strong one is no fluke.
4/11
Pirates – Jared Jones (R) – 1-1, 11.2 IP, 3.86 ERA, 17 Ks/2 walks, 0.94 WHIP
Phillies – Ranger Suarez (L) – 1-0, 11 IP, 4.09 ERA, 11 Ks/1 walk, 0.73 WHIP
4/12
Pirates – Bailey Falter (L) – 0-0, 10 IP, 5.40 ERA, 3 Ks/4 walks, 1.00 WHIP
Phillies – Cristopher Sanchez (L) – 0-1, 9.1 IP, 4.82 ERA, 9 Ks/4 walks, 1.61 WHIP
4/13
Pirates – Marco Gonzales (L) – 0-0, 11 IP, 2.45 ERA, 6 Ks/2 walks, 1.00 WHIP
Phillies – Spencer Turnbull (R) – 1-0, 11 IP, 0.00 ERA, 13 Ks/1 walk, 0.55 WHIP
4/14
Pirates – Mitch Keller (R) – 1-1, 17 IP, 5.29 ERA, 17 Ks/7 walks, 1.59 WHIP
Phillies – Zack Wheeler (R) – 0-2, 19 IP, 1.89 ERA, 20 Ks/2 walks, 0.89 WHIP
Phillies:
Zack Wheeler – I did a double-take when I saw his 1.89 ERA but 0-2 record after 3 starts where he allowed as many runs as his team scored in those games combined (4) while posting Ace-type numbers. Spencer Turnbull is also an interesting case as his career walk rate (8.9%) is considerably higher than what he has so far (2.4%) but would be quite the turn-around for the former highly touted prospect.
Pirates:
Connor Joe – The team is 9-0 when Joe is in the lineup and magically 0-3 when he isn’t. While this likely is just a coincidence, his early season accomplishments have helped propel the Pirates forward as his 5 doubles are tied with Bryan Reynolds for the team lead and his .324/.444/.541 slash line speaks for itself.
Phillies:
Nick Castellanos – Having turned 32 last month, Castellanos is starting to show SEVERE decline in more than just his defense. Usually a strong starter with a career .282/.337/.467 line over the first month of the season, Castellanos currently has a paltry .154/.267/.154 line. After posting a 29 home run season last year, he doesn’t have a single barrel yet.
Pirates:
Henry Davis – When Davis was in Spring Training, he was RAKING on both sides of the ball. His defense behind the dish has been solid but his offensive proclivity has all but disappeared, netting only one hit over his last six games played with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. Davis also has one of the highest whiff rates on the team (34.7%) but mostly missing on pitches in the zone as his chase rate (17%) is among the best on the team.
Key Injuries
Phillies:
Orion Kerkering might return to the team at some point this weekend as he works his way back from a reported right forearm strain. The back-end of the bullpen has Jose Alvarado (7.94 ERA) and Jeff Hoffman (2 blown saves) as the current closing corps so returning Kerkering would go a long way in solidifying that unit for the Phils
Pirates:
No one of note.
Who To Watch
Facing two southpaws out of the gate, it will be interesting to see if Edward Olivares can continue tapping into that power we saw in the game on Tuesday, when he blasted two home runs at 108.6 and 105 MPH with another long fly out traveling 105.5 MPH.
Steel City Pirates 
Wheeler looked great until that grand slam–how quickly the tide can turn. Suwinski had missed on at least four pitches begging to get scorched prior to that, so I’m glad he finally connected on one.
Joe started hot last season too, after which he had a prolonged cooling period. Here’s hoping he at least stays lukewarm while regressing to the norm.
Castellanos I do believe has gotten at least a few boos during this series, apparently not the Turner treatment for him.
I’m concerned fatigue will take quite a toll on Davis by the dog days. It feels inevitable for a young, green catcher, but I still lament it.
I figured a split was likely, and here’s hoping we’re about halfway to securing the final win in said split as I type this.
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