4-26-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Following a series split against division-leading Brewers, the Pirates head west and will try to break over .500 against the underperforming San Francisco Giants. Both teams entered the 2024 season with post-season expectations but are each sitting 4th in their respective divisions.
Both of these teams have struggled to score runs with the Pirates ranked 16th (109) and Giants just behind them at 17th (107) in all of baseball. A main dividing point between the teams is on defense as the Giants rank as the best defensive team in the National League with fDEF of +9 while the Pirates sit at the other end of the spectrum at -9.9.
4/26
Pirates – Quinn Priester (R) – 0-1, 4.1 IP, 8.31 ERA, 2 Ks/1 walk, 1.85 WHIP
Giants – Kyle Harrison (L) – 2-1, 27 IP, 5.00 ERA, 24 Ks/5 walks, 1.33 WHIP
4/27
Pirates – Martín Pérez (L) – 1-1, 28.2 IP, 3.45 ERA, 23 Ks/11 walks, 1.43 WHIP
Giants – Jordan Hicks (R) – 2-0, 28 IP, 1.61 ERA, 18 Ks/10 walks, 0.93 WHIP
4/28
Pirates – Jared Jones (R) – 2-2, 29 IP, 2.79 ERA, 39 Ks/4 walks, 0.83 WHIP
Giants – Keaton Winn (R) – 2-3, 28 IP, 3.54 ERA, 23 Ks/9 walks, 1.04 WHIP
Pirates:
Bryan Reynolds – Reynolds has had some defensive miscues but the bat is starting to heat back up. In his last 7 games, he has a .304/.448/.435 slash line with 6 walks to 5 strikeouts. If he can keep that up, maybe boost the power and hit more in the clutch (batting .143 in high leverage with 42.9% K rate), he can be the cog that gets this offense moving.
Giants:
Lamonte Wade Jr – I was hoping that the Pirates would trade for Wade this past offseason as he continues to perform at the dish, batting .368 and posting a .963 OPS. This has been helped by a wholly unsustainable .513 BABIP but he’s become a lynchpin in the Giants lackluster offense.
Pirates:
Rowdy Tellez – Things have gone from bad to worse for Rowdy. He hasn’t hit for power (only extra-base hit was a home run on March 31) and isn’t doing anything else particularly well as his batting average is down to .183 and his recent defensive miscues only amplify how poor his overall performance has become.
Giants:
Mike Yastrzemski – Blake Snell is too easy of a target and just hit the injured list anyway so we’ll talk about the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski. Mike has seen his numbers drop across the board so far this year with his OPS (.567) fading more than 200 points under his career average (.783).
Key Injuries
Giants:
Thairo Estrada was removed from the game on Wednesday due to a reported left hamstring tightness. It may have been precautionary but a prolonged IL visit could push the Giants to call up one of their top prospects in Marco Luciano.
Pirates:
No one of note.
Who To Watch
Rookie sensation Jared Jones is poised to make history, becoming just the 4th pitcher to strike out at least seven in his first 5 career appearances. If he Ks 7+ in his game on Sunday, he will be the only pitcher to do it in his first 6 games.
Joey Bart returns to San Francisco for the first time since leaving the team who drafted him 2nd overall in 2018. He’s been excellent with the Pirates in a small sample size of 7 games, posting a 1.168 OPS with 3 home runs but it will be interesting to see how he reacts being back in the Bay Area a few weeks after being shipped out.
Let’s Go Bucs!
Steel City Pirates 