8-10-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
Heading out on the road after today’s finale against the Reds, the Pirates will look to secure a winning home-stand against recent Cincinnati acquisition, Zack Littell, who has been having a strong under-the-radar 2025 campaign.
Traded over from the Tampa Bay Rays at this season’s deadline, Littell has a combined 3.46 ERA and 1.10 WHIP between the two teams this year with 97 strikeouts to 23 walks over 140.1 innings pitched.
He made quite the debut with his new club, holding the Chicago Cubs to one run over 7 innings of work with 2 walks and a season-high 8 strikeouts – helped in large part by his reliance on his splitter.
Littell generated 8 of 16 whiffs on the day with his low-80s splitter – a pitch that has been part of his arsenal for the past few years along with a high-80s slider, low-90s 4-seamer/sinker and high-70s sweeper.
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His splitter has been the main offering versus lefties, shifting to the slider against righties. The splitter has been one of his best weapons as his 38.4% O-Swing rate (outside of the zone) on the offering is the highest in his pitch mix with the lowest xBA in the group as well.
Littell will work up and away on the slider/sweeper against righties, upstairs with the fastballs and down under the zone with the splitter, which – when it’s on – just completely bottoms-out when it gets to the plate, making hitters look a bit foolish.
He also displays above average walk rates as his 4.1% mark ranks behind only Tarik Skubal (3.8%) and Sonny Gray (4.0%) among qualified starters but when he works in the zone and gets swings, the opponents can do some serious damage.
Key today is to stay upright and try not to chase stuff at/under the bottom of the zone. If Littell isn’t getting chases, he won’t be nearly as effective and will force him to the top of the zone where he can be eminently more hittable.
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