6-24-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
A week after his first start of the season, Carson Spiers and the Reds will run it back against the Bucs – this time on their home turf. After the Pirates hitters were able to get to him for 4 runs off 7 hits in 6 innings last week, Spiers will look to improve in his second go-round and in friendlier terrains as he has a 2.20 home ERA in 16.1 innings this season compared to 5.00 ERA in 9 innings away from Great American Ball Park.
In the start last week, Spiers generated 12 whiffs while leaning on a sweeper/fastball-heavy approach which combined for 9 of those whiffs in 32 swings. In contrast, hitters were much better squaring up on the sinker – 9 swings, 4 balls in play, 0 whiffs and average exit velocity of 98.6MPH.
I mentioned it last week and it remains true today – Pirates hitters will have their best chance of success against his sinker, which he uses mostly against RHH. He appears to be preferring to utilize the changeup down and away from lefties and runs the sweeper away from righties, generating that BIG swing-and-miss result.
Hitters today will need to hunt for the heater. He runs the 4-seam up to both lefties and righties and drops the sinker low in the middle of the plate. He’s a fly ball pitcher (35.4% ground ball rate) and plays in one of the most hitter-friendly places in MLB. Take advantage of hard-in, hard-out to get some early runs on the board.
Let’s Go Bucs!
Steel City Pirates 
All signs point to being due to give up bandbox shots, whether cheapies and scrapers or no-doubters. This time I feel like the Pirates are due, but it depends which batters Shelton trots out. Which among Hayes, Triolo, and Gonzales? Tellez or Joe? Suwinski or Taylor? Grandal or Delay (I know, but yep, even between those two)?
If I see Gonzales, Tellez, Suwinski, and Delay today, I’m likelier to feel they’ll deliver–some based only on gut feeling, I admit. The others I’m not inclined to expect anything of today. Overall it’s still a tenuous offense. 😦
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