5-11-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Following an extra-innings loss where just about everything could go wrong for the team and they still barely fumbled the game away, they will head into the rubber match of the series today against defending Cy Young winner, Chris Sale.
While his base numbers early on this season haven’t been great – 4.07 ERA and 1.36 WHIP over his first 42 innings pitched – Sale is every bit the talent that he’s always been and has been the victim of some extreme bad luck in the first few weeks of the season with one of the worst BABIP among qualified starting pitchers.
Sale allowed 3+ runs and pitched 5 or less innings in each of his first 4 games but has returned to form, specifically in his last two games where he K’d 10 in each of those outings and allowing just 2 runs over 13.2 total innings.
Sure, he’s unlikely to reach the dominance displayed during his Triple Crown 2024 season but the old southpaw can still sling it better than most anyone else in the game as he’s seen an increase in both his chase (35%) and whiff (32%) rates from last year’s Cy Young campaign (33.5% and 31%, respectively)
Additionally, his 30.3% K rate ranks 8th best in MLB while his 12 K/9 is 3rd highest behind only MacKenzie Gore and Hunter Greene. Bottom line is Sale is going to rack up the strikeouts and limit free passes.
The Braves ace works mainly with a high-70s slider riding down and in against righties while still pumping mid-90s on his fastball at the top of the zone that can touch 97-98 at times.
He’ll add in a changeup low in the zone averaging 86-87 and a sinker that drops down with less spin but similar velocity to his 4-seamer but mainly, Sale finds success with his slider/fastball arsenal.
Sale throws from a low, sidearm delivery which adds deception and adds induced break – especially for his slider.
Against his fastball, righties are batting .353 and slugging .549. Against the slider? .162 and .250. And 34 of his 46 strikeouts have come courtesy of his breaking ball.
Pirates hitters will need to stay on the high heat and not chase junk down or out of the zone as much as possible. Foul off borderline sliders with 2 strikes but try to focus on holding out for heat.
Steel City Pirates 