8-16-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
The thousand injuries of Castillo I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. – Edgar Allen Poe (paraphrased from ‘The Cask of Amontillado’)
After FINALLY breaking the losing streak last night, the Buccos will look to start a winning one in game 2 against the Mariners and another ace starter, Luis Castillo.
Pirates fans likely are familiar with Castillo, who spent his first 6 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, where he made all but one of his 14 career starts against the Pirates, posting a 2.32 ERA and 83 strikeouts through 81.1 innings – including 6 shutout frames in his start last May where he K’d 10 and allowed 2 walks, a hit batsman and one hit.
His success stems from his fastball-heavy approach, ranking among the best in baseball for his high-90s 4-seamer, which runs up in the zone and has a 31.7% K rate – the highest of his offerings – and ranks among the best in all of MLB with an oBA of .198 against the pitch.
While Castillo throws his heater nearly half the time (44.2%), he has some interesting secondaries which have proven effective as well, to varying degrees.
His other pitches consist of a mid-80s slider, a mid-80s sinker and a high-80s changeup – which he mostly will deploy against left-handed hitters running down and in on them.
Clearly, his fastball is the best offering as both the slider and changeup have expected batting average above .300 and his slider has a hard hit rate of 40.9%.
Key to beating Castillo is laying off the high heat and attacking the lower level stuff. He also has some drastic lefty/righty splits – though they are more skewed at home than on the road.
That said, he’s overall had struggles on the road, with a 2.85 home ERA through 85.1 innings compared to 4.14 ERA in 63 frames outside of T-Mobile park.
Foul off high heat but look to attack the low breaking stuff. Build on the win yesterday and keep that Jolly Roger raised!
Let’s Go Bucs!
Steel City Pirates 