Pirates

Pirates Preview: Oviedo Needs to Redeem Himself Saturday Night

Published

12 months ago

May 6, 2023

The Pittsburgh Pirates (20-13) are in a bad rut as of late after losing their fifth straight Friday night to the Toronto Blue Jays (19-14) in shutout fashion, 4-0.

Friday night, the Pirates’ offense couldn’t get out of their own way after three separate outs were created on the basepaths. Something that was the Pirates’ strength early on has now bitten them in the rear a few times now.

The Pirates will aim to end this skid and get back on the path of winning.

First pitch at PNC Park is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. You can watch all of the action on AT&T Sportsnet, or listen to it on the Pirates radio network, 93.7 The Fan.

Weather

There will be partly cloudy skies Saturday night with a temperature around 73 degrees at first pitch. There will be a slight wind of 3-4 mph throughout the game and blow northeast.

The Pirates will send out RHP Johan Oviedo (2-2, 4.78 ERA)

Oviedo’s ERA has ballooned over his past two starts, and things are starting to become a little concerning with him.

In his last two starts combined, Oviedo has given up 11 earned runs, 15 hits, four walks, and struck out five in 7.1 innings pitched. Oviedo’s last start was by far his worst, having only gone 2.1 innings and giving up seven earned runs to the Washington Nationals.

Oviedo has leaned almost exclusively on his slider as a main weapon, and it may be time to start mixing in four-seamers to get the hitters off the slider.

Oviedo has faced the Blue Jays once (one start) and holds an 0-0 record with an ERA of 0.00 in three innings pitched.

The Blue Jays will send out RHP Jose Berrios (2-3, 5.29 ERA).

Berrios struggled in his last outing on May 1 against the Boston Red Sox.

The righty managed to go 5.1 innings but gave up 11 hits, five earned runs, two walks, and struck out four on 93 pitches (56 strikes).

His last two starts in April were really good, however. Berrios combined to go 14 innings and gave up seven hits, two earned runs, two walks, and struck out 12.

Berrios offers a fairly even four-pitch mix with a slurve (32.7%), four-seam (26.7), sinker (23.7), and a changeup (16.9%). Berrios’ four-seam averages around 94 mph.

In addition, opponents have hammered his four-seam to a tune of a .389 average and .500 slug with an average exit velocity of 95.5 mph.

Berrios has faced the Pirates twice (two starts) and holds a record of 1-0 with an ERA of 3.72. This will be his first time pitching at PNC Park.

Interesting Batting Match Ups

Blue Jays Hitters

Vladamir Guerrero Jr.: 1-2 against Oviedo

Pirates Hitters

Carlos Santana: 8-28 with a double, triple, homer, and nine walks against Berrios
Austin Hedges: 3-6 with a double against Berrios

Tidbits

Bryan Reynolds has now extended his hitting streak to ten games after his sixth-inning double on Friday night. The last in-season 10+ game hitting streak took place on April 20-May 4, 2019.
In addition, Reynolds has had five instances where he had a 10+ game hitting streak.
Despite the offensive woes as of late, the Pirates find themselves fifth in the National League for total RBIs as a team, with 152.