7-4-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Pirates fans have a lot to celebrate this Independence Day, fresh off a perfect 6-game home-stand, capped off with three straight shutouts over division rival, St. Louis Cardinals.
They’ll look to take that good fortune on the road as they head west to face the dangerous Seattle Mariners and Mariners Cy Young candidate, Bryan Woo.
Woo broke out last season as he posted a 2.89 ERA over 22 starts and 121.1 innings pitched.
This season, Woo has the 12th best ERA among qualified AL starters (2.93) and 6th best WHIP (0.97) as he enters the day with a 7-4 record through 16 Seattle starts this year and one of the best fastballs in baseball (more on that later).
One thing Woo does with authority is limit free passes as only Rays Zack Littell, Tigers Tarik Skubal and Braves Spencer Schwellenbach have a low BB% than Woo.
Woo features a five-pitch mix with 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs in the mid-90s, a slider and changeup in the high-80s and a mid-80s sweeper – and he is looking to fill up the strike zone with all of them.
He mainly attacks lefties with his 4-seam fastball upstairs – with a successful .198 batting average against – while using the changeup/sinker/slider as his main secondary offerings.
Right-handed hitters are seeing a heavy dose of fastballs (75.4%) and struggling even more against Woo’s 4-seam with a .115 batting average against the offering.
Woo has been especially devastating at home, with opponents posting a .536 OPS in Seattle with just 9 extra base hits over 39 innings with Woo on the mound.
So what is the strategy against Woo? Be ready to swing. He throws first pitch strike 66% of the time and is in the zone with 56.3% of his pitches – but the fastball has some SERIOUS glove-side movement that can be tricky to pick up.
Expect strikes and be ready to pounce on fastballs early in counts because with Woo, the ball 4 call will be pretty rare.
Steel City Pirates 