8-6-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
As the Pirates welcome the dangerous San Diego Padres to town, their ace pitcher Dylan Cease will take the ball to start game 1.
Cease is posting arguably the best season of his career over his first year out west with career best strikeout rate (32.3%), walk rate (8%), batting average against (.186), WHIP (0.99) and FIP (3.04).
Oh, and he also threw a no-hitter just two weeks ago, the first of his career and just the 2nd in franchise history.
That isn’t to say he hasn’t hit some bumps this season as his ERA in May (4.08) and June (4.94) were certainly below his expectations but he’s considerably turned things around lately including 3 straight scoreless starts where he compiled 22 innings and allowed just 2 hits in that span while racking up 30 strikeouts to 7 walks.
Weirdly, Cease is essentially a two-pitch pitcher, successfully mixing a high-90s 4-seam fastball with a high-80s slider at a near every clip each.
While Cease adds in a few other options (low-80s knuckle-curve, for instance), these are the two main ones he will bring to the table.
Cease is typically using his fastball early in counts and more often using the slider as the finishing pitch. When facing his slider, opponents are whiffing at a 43.8% rate and striking out 105 times against 141 instances of putting the ball in play.
Overall, the slider has been DISGUSTING so Pirates batters are better served hunting heat upstairs. It’s not a bad pitch for Cease but it is eminently more hittable than the slider with a .218/.326/.394 line and a .319 wOBA against the offering make it the team’s best chance at success.
This is arguably the toughest pitcher the Pirates have faced post-All Star Break but the team has risen to challenges in the past and will need to tread carefully in the matchup today.
Stay on the high heat. Avoid chasing low breaking stuff. Take walks and run up long at-bats early.
Let’s Go Bucs!
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