8-10-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Mired in a 5-game losing streak – their longest of the season, the Pirates have quickly dropped out of the playoff race and are now just desperately trying to get back in the win column.
But it’s never easy when you’re facing the Dodgers, and they’ll have to face arguably their top pitching prospect tonight in River Ryan.
Brother of former Pirates relief pitcher, Ryder, the younger Ryan rocketed through the minor leagues for the Dodgers after coming over from the Padres in a 2022 trade. He pitched just 176.1 minor league innings, compiling a 3.22 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 212 strikeouts against 75 walks.
Over his three starts since being promoted to Los Angeles, Ryan has continued that success as he posted a 1.72 ERA with 14 strikeouts through his first 15.2 innings; however, walks have spiked a bit as he issued 9 free passes already.
Ryan offers a number of plus-pitches: a high-90s 4-seamer, a high-80s slider and a low-80s curve – with a developing high-80s changeup as well.
He follows the standard formula of hard stuff up, soft stuff down – albeit in a small sample size.
Given the recent uptick in walks, Pirates should wait for Ryan to make pitches. Let him get behind in counts and punish the mistakes.
This kid can touch 99 with the heat and then drop down to 82 with breaking pitches so
Steel City Pirates 