Pirates

Pirates Preview: Roansy Contreras Looking to Build Upon Last Season

Published

1 year ago

April 4, 2023

The Pittsburgh Pirates (2-2) look to take game two and click a series win against the Boston Red Sox (2-2) Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

The Pirates’ victory over the Red Sox Monday night was an insane one.

Bryan Reynolds hit two homers, Jason Delay hit his second career homer, and at the end of the day, the Pirates beat the Red Sox 7-6 in a hostile environment.

First pitch Tuesday night is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. You can watch all of the action on AT&T Sportsnet, or you can listen on the Pirates radio station, 93.7 The Fan.

Weather

At first pitch, the temperature should be around 49 degrees, with a 13% chance of rain. Winds should be around 6-7 mph throughout the game and blow east/northeast.

Starters

The Pirates will send out RHP Roansy Contreras

The right-hander will head out for the first time in the 2023 regular season, and he will look to mature and build upon the building blocks he carefully constructed in 2022.

In ’22, Contreras had one of the best sliders in the league, and as a result, he got a 42.1% whiff rate on it, and opponents had a hard time getting hard contact on it with an average exit velocity of 85.8.

Where Contreras needs to show improvement is on his four-seam.

While the velo averaged around 96 mph, it didn’t get a ton of swing and miss, and when opponents made contact with it, it got hit hard. The average exit velocity on Contreras’ four-seam was around 94 mph which placed him in the 18th percentile in average exit velocity in ’22.

If Contreras can learn how to get some swing-and-miss with his four-seam, that would make his slider all that more effective. To be a successful major league pitcher, you need to have swing-and-miss stuff, and if he can gain that ability, expect him to make tremendous strides this year.

Contreras has faced the Red Sox once and is 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA.

The Red Sox will send out fellow right-hander, Nick Pivetta

Pivetta offers mainly three pitches with a four-seam (51% usage in ’22), curveball (27.1% usage in ’22), and a slider (19.7% usage in ’22). His four-seam averaged around 93 mph.

Pivetta left his four-seam mainly in the middle of the zone in ’22, and as a result, he allowed an average exit velocity of 92.9 mph and an average launch angle of 23.

Thanks to that average exit velocity on the four-seam, he ranked near the bottom of average exit velocity in ’22 in the 6th percentile.

Pivetta allowed 27 homers in ’22, so maybe the Pirates can take advantage and smack even more home runs and build upon Monday night’s victory.

Pivetta has appeared in four games (three starts) against Pittsburgh and has a 1-0 record with a 2.00 ERA.

Interesting Batting Match Ups

The current Red Sox hitters, Contreras has faced are a combined 2-18 against him.

Carlos Santana is 2-3 with a double and three walks against Pivetta

Austin Hedges is 3-12 with two homers against Pivetta

Tidbits

Andrew McCutchen had his first start in the outfield of the ’23 season for the Pirates on Sunday. He ranks first among active outfielders in games played in the outfield at 1328. Cutch is also seventh all-time for Pittsburgh Pirates in games played in the outfield only behind Roberto Clemente (2,370), Max Carey (2,154), Paul Waner (2,019), Lloyd Waner (1,680), Fred Clarke (1,431), and Bill Virdon (1,376).
Reynolds recorded his fourth multi-homer game Monday night against the Red Sox. The last time Reynolds had a multi-homer game was also against the Red Sox back on Aug. 18, 2022. Reynolds became the only N.L. player with back-to-back multi-homer games against the Red Sox.
Jason Delay’s homer in the fourth inning on Monday marked his first home run away from PNC Park and was just the second ever of his career.