The Pittsburgh Pirates (8-6) take on the St Louis Cardinals (6-8) in the third game of a four-game series on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
The Pirates are sending out Roansy Contreras (1-1, 8.00) for his third start. He will be going up against veteran lefty Steven Matz (0-2, 8.18) in his third start.
First pitch is 2:15 PM. Lineups are posted below.
**One day after being scratched from the lineup due to ankle discomfort, Ji-Man Choi had landed on the Injured List.
**Our Pirates Prospects Daily takes a look at the positives that could come out of Bubba Chandler’s second start of the season, which did not go well
**I did a mid-season reevaluation of the draft-eligible players we cover each Monday, to see if anyone should be added to the list of possible #1 overall picks. Dylan Crews is still #1.
**In case you missed last night’s Prospect Watch, here’s the link. Enmanuel Terrero, who received a $600,000 bonus from the Pirates at 16 years old, had a career day for Bradenton. The 20-year-old put up an .890 OPS in the Florida Complex League last year, but he was off to a slow start this year until yesterday.
Today’s Prospect Watch is up early due to an early afternoon start time for Altoona.
**The Pirates have released DSL players Lewys Guzman and Dioris Valdez. Guzman saw very limited action due to major control issues over his two seasons, leading to 34 walks and 11 hit batters in 29 innings. Valdez has tremendous raw power, but major contact issues. The Pirates tried him as a pitcher last year with poor results. His plus power and strong arm could get the 20-year-old outfielder a second chance somewhere, but he’s very raw.
**Jack Brannigan landed on the Injured List today. The third round pick from 2022 has been doing well early on for Bradenton.
**If any other news pops up during the game today, we will post it here.
UMPIRE SCORECARD
Another rough game for the home plate umpire in this series yesterday. Those are below average percentages
Umpire: Lance Barksdale
Final: Pirates 0, Cardinals 3#LetsGoBucs // #STLCards#PITvsSTL // #STLvsPITMore stats for this game 👇https://t.co/IF28Q0jINO pic.twitter.com/3c40XImo0n
— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) April 15, 2023
TODAY’S LINEUPS
Pirates
Game 3 in St. Louis.
📺 AT&T SportsNet
📻 93.7 The Fan | The PRN#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/jrlw8nBQBl— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 15, 2023
Cardinals
All 42. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/EriHm1hATa
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 15, 2023
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
#42 had a bad game!
#42 had a good game!
All I saw was him making errors, striking out while giving up home runs.
Player of the game for sure!
I though this was a great outing for Roansy. The Astros roughed him up last time, and the Cardinals smelled blood blood early. He got things under control and then mostly cruised.
You cannot overstate the importance of the mental component of pitching. Roansy got in his own head against the Astros, and that’s a bad place for any athlete. He settled down and got back to work today.
The pirates bullpen looked like a strength for the first month last year as well. Peters and Crowe were pitching multiple innings and giving up nothing and then it fell apart and became the worst pirates bullpen in a long time. Hopefully these guys can keep it together. It’s amazing how much a good bullpen is worth. Stephenson looked pretty good today as well. He is a sleeper of mine to have a really good year.
Here is to today being his Oviedo moment 😁😁
meaning Ro’s Oviedo Moment 😁😁
Roansy’s 6th: 🔥
Castro’s 8th: 💪
Cutch’s April: 💣 🐐
I ride for Rodolfo. Irrational confidence in him and went out of my way to buy like every rookie card of his during the offseason because I just love him for some reason.
Lotta nice stuff. Ro held it together after the crappy BABIP luck in the first. Cutch. Rudy with two clutch hits. Moreta gets a save. Holderman and Bednar looking like two guys I remember from the good years.
So am I to assume your game recap article will be all warm and fuzzy?
#BelieveItWhenIReadIt
It’s BnP today. That sucks. I want to do all the wins.
noooo, don’t do it….
9-6
Split guaranteed!
One Mitch Keller gem from a winning week vs Astros and Cardinals. 😎
You’ve seen it before. You’ll see it again: I love Castro! Great win!!!
You are officially the President of the Castro fan club!
🤣🤣🤣
Raise it!
Exhale everyone!!!
# CutchHappens
Raise it!!!
Yesssss!
Arenado completely lost against sliders today.
Bummer there!
Moreta scares me worse than DU Jr.
Seemingly he always lets his first batter reach the bases then clean it up later somehow…
Adrenaline junkie.
Is there anything worse in any sport than a relief pitcher, or pitchers, who can’t throw strikes? Already gave the Cardinals one run today. No more. Make them earn it!
Basketball – Center who can’t shoot free throws
Football – Defensive back with hands of stone
Soccer – Striker who is always offsides
Hockey – A team that misses the playoffs by one game (too early?)
Not that Moreto is automatic, but I am happy DUJ won’t be used today.
No more walks PLEASE
Now throw strikes Big Bank!
Would love Bednar back, only 11 pitches, but fingers crossed!
Three players crossed our benchmarks for being included in prospect rankings today. We used 130 at-bats, 30 games pitched and 50 innings as the maximum. We don’t use service time like some sources. I’ve never seen two players lose that eligibility in one game since we started tracking. Today’s game saw Mark Matthias get his 131st at-bats and Colin Holderman and Rob Z each make their 31st appearances. Regardless of where they would rank (or not rank) as prospects, that’s an amazing coincidence
Maybe the Zazzer should go back to prospect status.
seven straight sliders from a man who possesses a hundred mile an hour fastball.
Drives me crazy!
And when he throws it glove side seems almost unhittable.
Rudy!! Sit Bednar now
BOOM! Joe with the Triple! Need this run too then can sit Bednar!
And a triple!!! Sac fly or a productive ground out please.
Love the way Joe hustled out of the box. Far too many players assume they’re going to have a double.
Or a hit. Not complaining. 🤭
Haha, payback for all the BABIP crap yesterday!
Swing that sword Cutch!!!
Cutch on Jackie’s Day!!!
Woo!!!!
Free baseball for first time this season.
must we still do this abomination?
seems the pitch clock has done plenty for speed of game.
I think a big reason it stays is to not waste pitching staffs on 16 inning games. I like it from that viewpoint, especially in this day and age of one inning relievers.
Why not play a tenth inning, then call it a tie instead of going to the eleventh?
Not even hockey does ties anymore. When we get Cruz back I would be ok with a sudden death home run derby
I guess I’m the rare person who likes the rule.
I like free baseball as long as it’s just one or max two innings more. At some point I start losing my focus and I just hope someone hits a homer so the game would be over.
I bet it gets addressed at some point.
why bring out the closer in the bottom of the ninth of a tied game? and others do that, not just pittsburgh. You have to throw the bottom of the 10th to win the game, I don’t get it. Unless the thought process is that you won’t need a closer in the bottom of the tenth if you get 3-4 runs in the top of the tenth. but, usually, It is just wasting Bednar today, when you could make better use of him tomorrow, or in the bottom of the 10th with a lead.
Bednar throws only 11 pitches in the ninth, and then you don’t bring him out in the 10th? I just don’t get that.
Well it makes Bednar avail tomorrow and Moreta has been very good.
throw Moreta tomorrow then, with the 50/50 chance (probably more like 30 percent chance) he is needed. Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Well, Moetta came through. Need to give him some of these opportunities so he will be a lot more reliable for when Bednar is not available or god forbid, he is on the IL. I think what made the decision was the 3rd run. If the run does not score Bednar would have been back out.
Well he only threw 11 pitches prolly not available tomorrow.
I’m guessing some because I am just looking at the streaming boxscore. But 2 on, 1 out and Reynolds up. You get your closer warm hoping for a lead. Once he is warm a lot of teams will bring in their closer so they don’t ask him to get warm twice or get warm and not use him. Yes, they will need a bottom of the tenth but only if they got Cards out in the bottom of the ninth which he did.
Makes sense and ……BOOM!!!
Well theres no tenth without getting through the bottom of the ninth
yes, but you have to pitch the bottom of the tenth to win, so why not save your closer till you know you actually need him. it just makes no sense.
Reynolds may not want to negotiate that extension tonight
Bummer that would didnt take advantage but I absolutely love making helsley sweat and having thrown ~30 pitches today makes him unavailable tomorrow i would imagine
Definitely not available tomorrow this early in the season.
Rudy!
Him?
I wish we could down vote.
Lead off walks in tie games late always come back to bite.
Wouldn’t be surprised if lead off walks have a better chance of scoring than lead off doubles.
Sarcasm font (maybe)
3 in that inning really killed us, think i would rather give up 3 hits than 3 walks
Ugh
Zastryzny keeps pitching like this and people will know his name for all the wrong reasons.
Go Zman Goooo!!
Well……he did goooo…..to the showers…….crud…..
Brey mad
Player of the week, follow by a slash line of .200, .200. .200! Baseball for you!
He is back to being affordable
That Devil Cardinal Dirt reached up and grabbed Ke’s foot……damned Devil Dirt!!
Leadoff double then some tough mistakes
Frustrating mistakes.
Hayes not exactly looking like the cornerstone of the franchise this half inning.
Pretty obvious Ro heard my comment below about not throwing strikes.
He heard mine about shaking of the 1st and finishing strong!
Ro’ you tease!
ten pitches, two fastballs, three strikeouts.
will the last fastball in baseball please turn out the lights.
3 hits…..
Mathias again……lovely
Whatever Hayes ate before this game needs to be his meal every single game
Their lineup is so damn deep
Ro can’t throw strikes. He’s been very fortunate up to this point.
Matthias a liability to the bottom of the order.