4-27-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
With an unexpected chance at a series win over the host Dodgers, the Bucs will have to go through former Pirate, Tyler Glasnow.
A former top prospect in Pittsburgh, Glasnow had his former team’s number the two times facing them last year, pitching a combined 13 innings with 3 runs off 8 hits, 3 walks and 13 strikeouts on June 4 and August 11.
Walks have been an issue for Glasnow in his career (9.2%) but he has maintained a strong K rate as his 34.1% strikeout percentage since 2019 ranks behind only Jacob deGrom among pitchers with at least 400 innings pitched in that span.
Glasnow is in his second season with the Dodgers, looking to build off his first All Star nod last year when he reached career-highs in starts (22), innings (134) and strikeouts (168) but an elbow strain ended his season following the final game against the Bucs.
While he left his most recent outing in the 5th inning with an apparent ankle injury, he reportedly is at full health heading into today’s matchup, entering the day with a 3.71 ERA over 17 innings pitched this season with 23 strikeouts to 10 walks.
The 6’8 righty has elite extension, which allows his velocity to play up even more against opposing batters as he mixes speed and location to get whiffs.
Glasnow works a four pitch mix including a mid-90s 4-seamer/sinker, low-80s curve and high-80s slider and all of them have been weapons for the 31-year old righty.
Key to win today will be trying to stay in the zone, avoid chasing junk down and giving away strikes. Additionally, we’ll need to lean on the lefties today. Against Glasnow, righties are batting .036 in 34 plate appearances with 16 strikeouts while lefties have a .273/.368/.455 slash line over 38 plate appearances.
Look to attack hanging sliders (.308 xBA and 847 xSLG ) and waste as many pitches as possible each at-bat to get him out of the game and get back into the bullpen.
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