Goooooood morning, Pirates fans! What news to wake up to that Konnor Griffin has signed a nine-year extension with the Bucs. It’s a good day to be a Pirates fan and we haven’t had many of those over the last 10 years. Some more news is it’s time for the NS9 Bullpen Breakdown fresh off a winning Skenes Day…
The bullpen usage last night after Skenes exited was real clean and efficient. All yellow on the Bullpen Breakdown for last night! Mattson, Soto and Ramirez all tossed 12 pitches or less and covered 2.2 innings. Now, that’s DOPE. For today’s rubber match, I would suspect they don’t want to throw those three if they don’t have to. All three have pitched back-to-back games. With the off day tomorrow, I think it’s a given that we’ll see Dennis Santana even if the game isn’t close.
On the mound today is First Half Mitch Keller. I love First Half Mitch Keller. Keller so far this season has a 1.50 ERA in 12.0 innings through two starts. He went a clean six innings in each start this season so far and I don’t see any reason why he doesn’t follow it up with another innings-eating performance. He has struggled with the Padres in the past, with a 5.84 ERA in 7 starts. One of those bad starts came during the second half in 2024 as he gave up 8 earned runs to the Padres in 5.0 innings back on August 14, 2024. However, Mitch does have better results during day games, a 3.87 ERA in 64 games during day games compared to a 4.86 ERA in 103 games at night.
Let’s hope First Half Mitch can solve the Padres today on getaway day and get the Bucs another series win.
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