8-23-24 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
The Pirates managed to get to Nick Lodolo in their rematch with him yesterday. Can they repeat the feat against his fellow rotation southpaw, Andrew Abbott?
While this is Abbott’s first start against the Pirates this season, he saw them twice last year, allowing 4 runs off 8 hits through 10 innings with 16 strikeouts to just 2 walks.
Abbott comes in with a 10-10 record and 3.72 ERA through 138 innings this season.
Unlike some of his rotational contemporaries in Lodolo and Hunter Greene, Abbott is more of a pitch-to-contact approach, with just a 19.5% K rate but above average results in both average exit velocity (88.2MPH) and hard hit rate (33.5%).
He works mostly off his low-90s fastball up in the zone while adding in the low-80s sweeper, mid-80s changeup and low-80s curve down in the zone. The change and curve drop off away from batters while sweeper breaks down and in with some crazy break.
Although his sweeper has good movement and has provided plus results, the fastball has been mostly ineffective for the lefty, with 14 of his 25 home runs coming against the offering and the highest xwOBA (.368) among his offerings.
Bucs batters will want to stay on the heat. His fastball doesn’t have much life to it and has a 43.2% hard hit rate. Lay off the sweeper/slider down and away and keep hands tight against breaking pitches inside. Break out the bats this weekend and get another W!
Let’s Go Bucs!
Steel City Pirates 
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