6-20-2025 – By Corey Shrader – @CoreyShrader on X
The Texas Rangers roll in to town this weekend giving Pirates fans a chance to see an extremely talented American League club. Despite their underwhelming 2025 season to date, the Rangers are 6-4 in their last 10 & boast an impressive array of talent. Looking at this Texas team on paper it just goes to show how hard it is to be a good major league baseball team.
Pittsburgh’s woes have been well-documented, but for the sake of this preview, the last 10 games have not been kind to the Bucs. The Pirates last 10 games have seen them go 3-7 even though they boast one of the strongest pitching units in all of Major League Baseball. Bucs pitching has posted the second highest fWAR among all clubs over the last two weeks (2.5). Unfortunately, the pitching has got next to no support from the bats in this timeframe. The lineup sits at a major league worst wOBA, wRC+, ISO, SLG%, & OPS in the same 2-week span of time we’ve seen terrific pitching.
An area where the Pirates could possibly exploit during this three-game set is the inexperience of the game 2 & 3 starters, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. Of the two, Rocker has been throwing better baseball, but much of the positives in the box score stems from an exemplary 5IP, 4 hit, BB, 6 K outing against the White Sox. In his last two starts, he is showing some of the pitching ability & stuff that made him a big-time prospect with a 3.21 SIERA in his 8.1 IP so far in June.
Leiter has had a much tougher go in June. One stellar outing early this month where he was able to harness his potential (and wildness) saw him pitch 5 innings and allow just 1 run off 3 hits and 1 walk with 6 strikeouts but since then, he has thrown 9.2 innings over two games giving up 10 runs off 13 hits and 6 walks to just 7 strikeouts in those affairs.
The best shot for the Bucs to win this series will more than likely be dependent on how they can handle the young kids on the hill in games 2 & 3. If they are able to make them labor or make them pay early, this series is certainly in play. Granted, game 1 you’ve got to face one of the greatest pitchers of this or any era, Jacob deGrom. Make no mistake, he is not the deGrom of 2015-2019, but he is still a force to be reckoned with.
6/20
Rangers: Jacob deGrom – 82.1 IP, 6-2, 80 K/17 BB, 2.19 ERA, 0.91 WHIP
Pirates: Mike Burrows – 23.1 IP, 1-1, 25 K/7 BB, 4.25 ERA, 1.33 WHIP
6/21
Rangers: Kumar Rocker – 28.1 IP, 2-4, 27 K/8 BB, 7.31 ERA, 1.69 WHIP
Pirates: Mitch Keller – 88.1 IP, 1-9, 68 K/22 BB, 4.08 ERA, 1.25 WHIP
6/22
Rangers: Jack Leiter – 61.1 IP, 4-4, 49 K/30 BB, 4.40 ERA, 1.29 WHIP
Pirates: Bailey Falter (L) – 80 IP, 5-3, 50 K/26 BB, 3.49 ERA, 1.13 WHIP
Rangers: Josh Smith has been putting in work over the last two weeks. 12 runs scored, 2 home runs, slashing .386/.449/.614, with a .458 wOBA & 202 wRC+. It must be mentioned that he as been sidelined for a few games with hamstring soreness. He is expected to return on 6/20. Should shout out that both Marcus Semien & Adolis Garcia have been showing some signs of life after sluggish starts, putting up respective wOBAs of .416 and .362 in this wtimeframe.
Pirates: Mike Burrows is showing fans glimpses of why he was so well regarded prior to his injury. In his last 3 starts he has been the Pirates best starting pitcher. His 15 IP, 1.80 ERA, 1.86 FIP, & 2.50 SIERA, & 27.9 K-BB% are all outstanding marks.
Rangers: Jack Leiter has been struggling to get things going of late. His last two starts in June have seen him without much control of his arsenal. The stuff is huge, but he has a long way to go to get it clicking.
Pirates: Frankly, I could list the entire offense here, but for now we will say Isiah Kiner-Falefa is notably frigid. A truly dismal performance slashing .167/.225/.194, .195 wOBA, 16 wRC+, 0 barrels, 79.5 average EV, 18.2% hard hit, & a 51.6% ground ball rate. Awful.
Rangers: Josh Sborz, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, Joc Pederson, Jon Gray
Pirates: Endy Rodriguez, Jared Jones, Enmanuel Valdez, Johan Oviedo, Dauri Moreta, Colin Holderman, Tim Mayza, Justin Lawerence
Notes
- Game 1 features a pitching matchup that I am super excited about. Every opportunity to watch a healthy Jacob deGrom is a treat for baseball fans. On the home side, Mike Burrows is humming along right now himself. Here are their June stats:
deGrom: 13IP, 1-0, 1.38 ERA, 31.1 K-BB%, 1.14 FIP, 2.12 SIERA
Burrows: 15IP, 1-0, 1.80 ERA, 27.9 K-BB%, 1.86 FIP, 2.50 SIERA
These are two pitchers who are throwing extremely well. One word of warning on Burrows: he has been on the receiving end of extremes in pitching with a .378 BABIP & a 90.4% strand rate this month. These figures are both unsustainable outside of this small sample size as they likely regress to the mean eventually. Regardless, the young man is locked in and should be able to keep the Pirates in this game. They just need to break through on one of the all-time greats to have a shot.
Subscribe to our site, it’s free and all you’ll get from us is a notification when there’s something new to read.
Steel City Pirates 