Pirates

Pirates Preview: Can Offense Maintain Momentum Against Senga?

Published

11 months ago

June 10, 2023

The Pittsburgh Pirates (33-29) offense had a breakout game against the New York Mets (30-33), as they put up 14 runs, and pitched masterfully until a wacky ninth inning, where things got hairy.

Rich Hill pitched seven masterful innings, and then the Pirates allowed five runs in the ninth inning, by a combined effort of Rob Zastryzny and David Bednar.

Ke’Bryan Hayes went 5-5, and the Pirates outlasted the Mets by a score of 14-7. Maybe I should say the Steelers outlasted the Giants.

The first pitch at PNC Park is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Saturday’s game will be aired on AT&T Sportsnet. You can also listen to the game on the Pirates radio station, 93.7 The Fan.

Weather

Expect mostly cloudy skies at first pitch, with temperatures right at 79 degrees. There will be a slight southwest wind blowing around 8-9 mph throughout the contest.

The Pirates will send out RHP Johan Oviedo (3-4, 4.29 ERA)

Oviedo pitched extremely well for the Pirates in his last start on June 5 against the Oakland Athletics. The big righty pitched seven innings with four hits, two earned runs, two walks, and struck out five.

Oviedo, in that start, stuck to his four-seam (45%) and his slider (41%) for the most part and kept the hard-hit balls to a minimum with an average exit velocity of 85.3 with 20 balls put into play.

The Cuban native on the year has averaged 96.1 mph on his fastball, and against the Athletics, it was a tick down, averaging 95.9 mph, while topping out at 98.2 mph.

Oviedo has faced the Mets three times (three starts) and holds an 0-2 record with an ERA of 10.24 in 9.2 innings pitched.

The Mets will send out RHP Kodai Senga (5-3, 3.75 ERA)

Senga couldn’t make it out of the third inning in his last start against the Toronto Blue Jays on June 4 after throwing 68 pitches in 2.2 innings pitched.

Senga avoided taking a loss, but he gave up four hits, four runs (three earned), struck out three, and issued five walks.

The 30-year-old rookie has been impressive since coming to America, posting a 2.79 ERA in May, while throwing 29 innings and allowing just 20 hits and nine earned runs during that span.

Senga offers mainly a four-pitch repertoire with a four-seam (41.9%), forkball (21.9%), cutter (21.1%), and a sweeper (11.4%). In addition, Senga occasionally will throw a slider (2.6%), and a curveball (1.1%).

Senga has never faced the Pirates.

Mets Hitters

Daniel Vogelbach: 1-8

Pirates Hitters

No Pirates hitter has faced Senga

Tidbits

With the Pirates putting up 14 runs Friday night, that marks the seventh time this season the Pirates have scored double-digit runs. In 2022, the Pirates scored 10+ runs just three times.
Hill marked a season-high in innings pitched in one game with going seven innings on Friday. In addition, Hill threw 119 pitches. The last Pirates pitcher to throw 119+ pitches in a game was James McDonald back in 2012 against the Minnesota Twins, where he threw 120.
With Hayes going 5-5 on Friday, that marked just the second time in his career he’s achieved that. The last time Hayes went 5-5 was back in Sept of 2020.