7-18-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
It’s a “battle of the bads” as two of the worst teams in MLB will face off to open the second half of the MLB season with the Pittsburgh Pirates hosting the Chicago White Sox this weekend.
While the White Sox had no aspirations for success in 2025, it has certainly been a disappointing year for the Bucs as they headed into the break having just broken an 8-game losing streak and will look to try taking advantage of a struggling Chicago squad to get some more notches in the win column.
These two teams both rank in the bottom three in MLB for runs, slugging, home runs and wRC+ and have been in the bottom third for nearly every measurable offensive metric as they struggle to hit for any kind of power this year.
While the White Sox have also struggled to find much success with the pitching, the Pirates have continued to post a top pitching staff in MLB as the starting corp have posted the 9th best ERA on the year (3.71) while the bullpen is only a bit behind them with a combined 3.76 ERA this season.
7/18
White Sox: Jonathan Cannon – 3-7, 4.44 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 77 IP, 61 K/29 BB
Pirates: Bailey Falter (L) – 6-4, 3.79 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 97.1 IP, 59 K/34 BB
7/19
White Sox: Adrian Houser – 5-2, 1.56 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 57.2 IP, 39 K/19 BB
Pirates: Mike Burrows – 1-3, 4.83 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 41 IP, 42 K/17 BB
7/20
White Sox: Aaron Civale – 1-6, 5.30 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 52.2 IP, 36 K/22 BB
Pirates: Andrew Heaney (L) – 4-8, 4.59 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 98 IP, 73 K/33 BB
White Sox: Edgar Quero – There aren’t many bright spots on the White Sox team but the rookie Quero has shined in his brief time in the bigs. The #4 ranked prospect for Chicago entering this season has 7 hits over 25 plate appearances this month – including a 3-hit game against the Dodgers on July against future Hall of Famer, Clayton Kershaw. Given his splits this year (.952 OPS against LHP vs. 541 against RHP), expect to see him quite a bit this weekend with two southpaws going for the Bucs.
Pirates: Tommy Pham – What a difference correct contact lenses can make, right? Since June 22nd – when Pham reportedly corrected the keratoconus issues plaguing him early on in the season – Pham has slashed .415/.448/.717 with 4 doubles and 4 home runs over 58 plate appearances. He has benefited from an abnormally high .450 BABIP but his 93.9 average exit velocity, 54.5% hard hit rate and 13.6% barrel rate indicate that this is more than a flash in the pan situation and the Pirates may have a serious blue chip trade piece on their hands ahead of this month’s deadline.
White Sox: Aaron Civale – The low-hanging fruit that is the entire offense for the White Sox seemed too easy but Civale – who has routinely dominated the Pirates the past few times they have faced off – has struggled since being shipped out from Milwaukee. Through six starts, he is 0-4 with a 5.58 ERA – including going 0-2 over three starts this month as he has a 6.75 ERA over 14.2 innings pitched in July.
Pirates: Bryan Reynolds – Man, remember when the summer turned B-Rey into gold? The hits just haven’t been coming for arguably the worst offensive member of the Pirates as Reynolds has the most at-bats of any Pirate this season and has a .225/.287/.369 slash line that has only been worsened by a July mark of .098/.119/.122 with just one walk and 18 strikeouts over 41 at-bats. Yes, he’s gotten some bad batted ball luck this year but can’t chalk it up to luck when you head back to the dugout on strike 3 as often as he does.
White Sox: Prelander Berroa, Ky Bush, Miguel Castro, Davis Martin, Martín Pérez, Jesse Scholtens, Jared Shuster, Drew Thorpe, Tim Elko, Ryan Noda, Brooks Baldwin
Pirates: Ryan Borucki, Jared Jones, Justin Lawrence, Tim Mayza, Johan Oviedo, Chase Shugart, Endy Rodriguez, Enmanuel Valdez
Notes
- Andrew Heaney has struggled his last few times out with a 9.61 ERA over his last five appearances, one of the few things the White Sox offense hasn’t looked completely overmatched with is facing left-handed pitching as their team OPS in these situations (.666) is tied for 18th in MLB – a sizeable bump from their .629, 30th place mark against right-handed pitching.
- Tommy Pham spent part of last season with the White Sox before being dealt to the Cardinals midway through the year but the Sox are catching him at his best as he looks to improve on his career .176 batting average against Chicago.
- Andrew McCutchen is two home runs away from posting his 17th straight double-digit home run campaign (including 2020). While he almost assuredly won’t reach the record (23 seasons by Hank Aaron), it is still a remarkable achievement that speaks to his sustained success throughout his MLB career.
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