6-28-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
After an offensive outburst to open the series, the Pirates will look to continue the hot hitting against long-time Athletics arm, Paul Blackburn, who has been thrust back into the Mets rotation as injuries to starters pile up.
Acquired from the A’s at last year’s trade deadline, Blackburn has only appeared in five games this season after a delayed start to his year due to surgery to repair a spinal fluid leak this past offseason.
His first outing was a strong 5 innings of shutout ball against the Dodgers but, over his next four games, he pitched 12.2 innings and allowed 14 runs (13 earned) off 21 hits with 6 walks and just 10 strikeouts.
Blackburn has yet to throw more than 120 major league innings in a season despite this being his 9th year in the bigs, struggling with injuries and ineffectiveness over his time on the west coast, pitching 446 total innings with a career ERA of 4.92.
He isn’t going to blow opponents away but what Blackburn lacks in velocity, he makes up for with a varied pitch mix – with limited success.
His fastballs sit in the low-90s while he adds a sweeper and curve in the low-80s with a mid-80s changeup.
He will use a sweeper/sinker approach when facing righties while utilizing a cutter/curve/change mix when lefties step in the box.
Lefties have had success against both his cutter (.417 batting average) and changeup .364) and, while batting only .222 against his curve, are slugging .556 against the offering.
Right-handed hitters should target his sinker, which he offers nearly a third of the time (32.1%) and against which they are hitting .538 and slugging .923.
He has, overall, been a fairly ineffective pitcher over his tenure with the Mets as he has compiled a 5.79 ERA through a total of 42 innings with 34 strikeouts to 14 walks.
Pick your pitch to target, spit on junk out of the zone and capitalize when he makes mistakes.
Steel City Pirates 