5-23-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
After finally breaking the 5 run mark, the Pirates will look to continue pushing the offense forward today but they’ll face a much tougher challenge today with Freddy Peralta on the bump, entering the day with a 2.59 ERA through his first 10 starts on the season.
The Bucs faced Peralta most recently on September 25th where he held Pittsburgh to 2 runs off 2 hits and 2 walks with 7 strikeouts over 5.1 innings of work.
Peralta focuses on a 3-pitch mix with a mid-90s 4-seam up in the zone, a high-80s changeup down and away from lefties and a low-80s curve that drops down under the zone – though, he also will infrequently mix in a low-80s slider with DEVASTATING results.
While Peralta has been nearly unbeatable at home this year – a 0.75 ERA and 25:4 K:BB ratio over 24 innings – he’s been much more human outside of American Family Field with a 3.98 ERA over 31.2 innings with a 32:16 K/BB mark when his team bats first, but that’s where the optimism ends.
Both lefties and righties are universally struggling to hit Peralta’s stuff and he is both efficient and effective early on in games with a 2.00 ERA the first two times through the lineup.
Righties will want to key in on the hanging curve. If he’s not getting the break he needs on the ball – as has happened often this year with righties batting .364 and slugging .818 against the offering – they could have a big opportunity to do some damage.
Lefties will need to be wary of the changeup breaking down and away (posting a .198 wOBA against the pitch) and focus on the high fastball, which Freddy tosses to lefties at a nearly 60% clip.
With Paul Skenes on the mound, you have to hope the offense can get something figured out as they have provided just 4 total runs of support over his last 4 games and 25 innings pitched.
Steel City Pirates 
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