Pirates

Pirates Daily: Keller Faces Old Friend Quintana

Published

2 years ago

September 11, 2022

Sunday, Sept. 11, the Pittsburgh Pirates (51-87) square off against the National League Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals (82-58) at 1:35 p.m. at PNC Park.

The Pirates are coming off a heartbreaking loss on Saturday night, with Wil Crowe giving up three runs in the ninth inning, sealing the Pirates’ fate at a 7-5 loss.

The game will be aired on AT&T Sportsnet PIT and can be heard on 93.7 The Fan

Starters

Starting Sunday afternoon for the Pirates will be Mitch Keller (5-10, 4.22 ERA). Keller’s last start on Tuesday against the Mets was a good one. Keller went six innings while giving up no runs on five hits and two walks.

Starting for the Cardinals will be old friend Jose Quintana (5-6, 3.41 ERA), who the Pirates traded to St. Louis on Aug. 1. Quintana has pitched well since coming to St. Louis. The lefty has yet to give up more than two earned runs in his seven starts and gone at least five innings in five.

Betting Odds

The Cardinals open up as -210 favorites, with the Pirates listed as +175 underdogs on the moneyline. The Cardinals’ runline of -1.5 stands at -125, whereas the Pirates’ +1.5 is +104. The O/U is 8.

Who’s Hot/Who’s Not

Who’s Hot: Oneil Cruz is making it hard to remove him from this portion of the article. Saturday night, he recorded another multi-hit game with a homer and single whilst upping his hitting streak to seven games (a career-best).

Who’s Not: Michael Chavis is having a rough go of things in his last seven games for the Pirates. In 24 at-bats, Chavis is batting .125/.154/.250 with nine strikeouts.

Tidbits:

Cruz, during his seven-game hitting streak, has hit seven extra-base hits. Cruz is the first Pirates’ player aged 23 or younger to do this since Pedro Alvarez in 2010 with eight.
Jack Suwinski has five home runs against left-handed pitchers. Suwinski is now two home runs away from surpassing Garrett Jones’ Pirates’ rookie record of most home runs hit off of a lefty pitcher by a lefty hitter.
Cruz has batted leadoff in12 consecutive games. In that span, he is batting .362 with three doubles, three triples, and four homers.