Starter Spotlight: Glas-Now We’ve Done It

8-11-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Pirates have now dropped 3 consecutive series, losing 8 of their last 9 games, including six straight, as they have tumbled down the standings in their worst stretch of the season. They will look to avoid back-to -back sweeps this week in the final game of the Dodgers series going up against Tyler Glasnow.

Glasnow last faced the Pirates in Pittsburgh on June 4th and posted a dominant outing with 6 innings of 1-run, 3-hit ball but was outfield by Pirates starter, Jared Jones. While Jones won’t be available for the rematch today, there’s still reason to believe this team *might* be able to break through against the Oppenheimer doppelgänger.

For starters, since that last appearance in Pittsburgh, Glasnow has made 8 starts and completed 47 innings allowing 24 earned runs to postseason a 4.60 ERA over that stretch.

Unfortunately, he’s had some bad luck that is unlikely to persist as his FIP (2.98) and xFIP (2.61) indicate that he almost assuredly will have no problems moving forward but, hopefully, we get one more day of trouble because this Pirates team DESPERATELY needs it.

Glasnow typically uses his high-90s 4-seam fastball, low-90s slider and low-80s curve as he changes speed and location to punch out over a third of opposing batters – the best rate among qualified starters in the Senior Circuit.

His fastball has been among the best in baseball but has technically been his most hittable pitch, with opponents crushing it at a whopping .215 clip, though they are slugging .410 with 9 of his 14 home runs surrendered coming against the heater.

Facing Glasnow, the team will need to bear down to work counts and avoid letting him coast through the game. Lay off the secondary stuff as his whiff rates against the slider (40.8%) and curve (47.4%) are pretty rough.

Gotta try to get a win today because you can’t win em all, but you can’t lose them all either…right?

Let’s Go Bucs!