PITTSBURGH PIRATES NOTES:
THE PIRATES:…were shut out 7-0 in the deciding game of their three-game series against the Astros Wednesday at PNC Park…Won in walkoff fashion for the first time this season Tuesday night…Have won six of their last nine games…Won a season-high four straight games from 4/3-7…Have not lost back-to-back games since dropping the final two games of their season-opening series in Cincinnati.
HITTIN’ THE ROAD: Tonight the Pirates will open a four-game series here in St. Louis as part of a seven-game road trip… The trip will continue with three games at Coors Field beginning Monday night…This is the first of two road trips to St. Louis this year (also September 1-3).
ON THE ROAD: The Pirates bring a three-game road winning streak into their game tonight after sweeping the Red Sox to close out their last trip from April 3-5…Pittsburgh won four straight games on the road on two occasions last season, doing so from July 9-12 and again from September 12-14.
AGAINST THE CARDS: Bryan Reynolds has gone deep twice in his last four games at Busch Stadium and has hit safely in 14 of his last 18 games here…Jack Suwinski has hit safely in eight of his last nine games against the Cards, going 11-for23 (.393) with three home runs (Suwinski homered four times in 16 games as a rookie last year vs. St. Louis)…Ji Hwan Bae hit safely in four of his five games against the Cardinals last year, going 7-for-16 (.438)…Jason Delay and Canaan Smith-Njigba each made their big league debuts against the Cardinals last year.
REYNOLDS ON A ROLL: Bryan Reynolds has hit safely in 11 of his first 12 games coming into today (his only hitless game came on Monday)…Reynolds enters today ranked first in the National League in RBI (14) and total bases (36), tied for second in home runs (five), second in slugging (.735), fourth in OPS (1.093) and ninth in batting (.347).
ABOUT TONIGHT’S STARTER: Vince Velasquez will get the start tonight in the opener of this four-game series against the Cardinals…The Pirates signed Velasquez to a one-year contract this past offseason on December 13…Velasquez spent the 2022 campaign with the Chicago White Sox, where he went 3-3 with a 4.78 ERA (75.1ip/40er) in 27 appearances (nine starts).
SCOUTING REPORT: Vince Velasquez spent the 2022 season with the White Sox, where he posted the best walk rate (2.99 percent) of his career while splitting time between the starting rotation and bullpen…Velasquez ranked in the 78th percentile in Zone Miss percentage (19.5%), 74th percentile in Batting Average on Balls In Play (.270), 88th percentile of Four-Seam spin rate (2417) and 73rd percentile for average Slider spin rate (2501) among pitchers with at least 75.0 innings pitched last season according to TruMedia.
PROVIDING RELIEF: Pittsburgh’s bullpen enters today ranked fifth among National League teams in ERA (3.74) and sixth in batting average against (.237)…Pirates relievers have also surrendered a total of three home runs this year…The only five teams in all of MLB to surrender fewer home runs out of the bullpen are the Brewers, Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals and Rangers with two apiece.
BACK TO THE NL: The Pirates ended their stretch of nine straight games against American League opponents with a 7-0 loss yesterday against the Astros…Pittsburgh went 6-3 during the nine games after sweeping Boston at Fenway, taking two of three against the White Sox last weekend and dropping two of three to Houston to close out the homestand.
DOWN ON THE FARM: Altoona enters today leading all teams at the Double-A level in home runs (10)…Yesterday Altoona matched its single-game team record with six home runs in a 17-6 win against Erie…Mason Martin went deep twice, while Henry Davis, Lolo Sanchez and Andres Alvarez all added their first home runs of the season in the win…Matt Fraizer also hit his second in as many games in the ninth inning.
GETTING ON: Andrew McCutchen has reached base safely in 10 of his first 11 games and enters today fourth in the National League with a .476 on-base percentage…Since going 2-for-11 in his first five games, McCutchen is 8-for-20 (.400) with a 1.058 OPS in his last six games.
PIRATING: The Pirates enter today tied for second in the National League along with the Mets and tied for fourth in all of MLB with 14 stolen bases..The only three teams in all of MLB with more stolen bases are the Guardians (19), Diamondbacks (17) and Orioles (17).
MAKE THAT A DOUBLE: Andrew McCutchen enters today with 294 career doubles as a member of the Pirates, which is tied with Bill Mazeroski for the eighth-most in club history…Dave Parker ranks seventh (296).
TODAY’S STARTING PITCHER – 27 – RHP VINCE VELASQUEZ
VINCE VELASQUEZ: The 30-year-old righthander is making his third start of the season…Lost an 11-5 decision (2.2ip/5er) in his last start on Saturday vs. the White Sox.
vs. ST. LOUIS: 1-3 with a 5.67 ERA (33.1ip/21er) in seven career appearances (six starts)…Hasn’t faced the RedBirds since 9/17/21 here at Busch when he allowed four runs in 4.0 innings while losing an 8-2 decision against Miles Mikolas…His lone win (6.1ip/0r) vs. the Cards came on 5/17/18 here at Busch while pitching for the Phillies.
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS NOTES:
RECENT REDBIRDS: The defending NL Central Division Champion St. Louis Cardinals kick off a seven-game homestand tonight by welcoming the division-rival Pittsburgh Pirates for the first of four games at Busch Stadium … The Arizona Diamondbacks make their annual visit to St. Louis on Monday for three games … The Redbirds split their first road trip through Milwaukee (1-2) and Colorado (2-1), with yesterday’s win securing their first series win since taking 2-of-3 in their season-opening series against Toronto and their first road series win since Sept. 9-11, 2022 at Pittsburgh.
WALKER MAKING HISTORY: Rookie Jordan Walker’s historic 12-game hitting streak to begin his career (chart left):
• Is a Cardinals rookie record and ties for the 10th-longest all-time by any player to begin a Major League career … David Dahl (2016 Rockies) and Chuck Aleno (1941 Reds) share the MLB rookie record at 17 games.
• Is the 2nd player age 20 years or younger all-time, matching Philadelphia Athletics outfielder Eddie Murphy’s 111-year-old record, of hitting safely ineach of his first 12 games in 1912 at age 20.
• Current Cardinals Bench Coach Joe McEwing holds the franchise rookie record for longest hitting streak, doing so in 25 games (June 8-July 4, 1999), the 8th-longest overall hit streak in franchise history … Walker needs hits in his next 2 games to tie Jerry Mumphrey (1976) and Terry Pendleton (1984) for the 4th-longest rookie hitting streak in franchise history at 14 games.
• Is the 8th-longest by any Cardinal to begin a season and the longest since Matt Holliday’s 12 game streak in 2015 … Joe Torre owns the franchise record with 22 games to begin his 1971 MVP season.
• Ties Philadelphia’s Bryson Stott (12) with MLB’s longest active hitting streak.
AHOY, MATEY: St. Louis has won the season series over Pittsburgh for nine consecutive seasons (2014-22) and 20 times in the last 23 years since 2000 (excluding 2008, 2012, 2013). BURIED TREASURE: St. Louis owns MLB’s best overall win percentage against the Pirates (.591, 107-74) dating back to 2013 when the two teams squared off in the Division Series.
NOOT NEWS: The Cardinals announced that OF Lars Nootbaar will begin an injury rehab assignment with Springfield (AA) tonight at Arkansas (AA-Mariners) … Nootbaar has missed the previous 11 games since jamming his left thumb while sliding into third base on opening day.
STORMIN GORMAN: Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Cardinals were one of five MLB teams with zero homers in “close & late” situations … Since, Nolan Gorman has provided go-ahead blasts in the eighth inning or later in back-to-back games, becoming the 4th Cardinal to do so with Stan Musial (1948), José Cruz (1973) and Albert Pujols (2011) … Prior to the Colorado series, Gorman had never homered in his career past the 7th inning.
CENTRAL PERKS: St. Louis went 48-28 (.632) against the NL Central last season (26-12 at home) for MLB’s 4th-best intra-divisional record behind the Astros (.671 vs. AL West), Dodgers (.711 vs. NL West), and Mets (.658 vs. NL East) … With the introduction of MLB’s new balanced schedule this season, the Cardinals now face each divisional opponent 13 times each (two series both at home and on the road) for a total of 52 games, a reduction of 24 games from last season’s format.
KIDS CLUB: The Cardinals own the majors top combined rookie totals for batting avg. (.312) and are 2nd in hits (24) & 4th in OPS (.880).
ROOKIE RANKINGS: Rookie outfielder Jordan Walker, the Cardinals 1st round draft selection in 2020 and MLB’s youngest player this season, is the MLB rookie leader in hits (15) and batting average (.319), and ranks among rookie leaders in OBP (.360, 6th), slugging (.489, 5th), OPS (.849, 5th), RBI (8, 3rd) and total bases (23, 3rd) … Walker’s first 15 hits have come off of 15 different pitchers.
POWERBALL: St. Louis is 4-1 when homering multiple times in a game this season … The last time the Cardinals had 3+ homers in three consecutive games was Sept. 24(G1)-Sept. 25, 2021 at Chicago Cubs (3 HR, 5 HR, 3 HR).
OFF THE BAT: According to Baseball Savant, St. Louis ranks 2nd in MLB in hard hit balls of 95+mph (151) behind the Dodgers (154) and 3rd in average exit velocity (90.7 mph) … Paul Goldschmidt (20), Jordan Walker (19), & Nolan Arenado (18) pace the team in hard hit balls.
TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHER: LHP JORDAN MONTGOMERY (2-0, 2.25 ERA)
TONIGHT’S GAME
NL Leaders: Wins (2, T-3rd), Run Support Avg (11.25, 1st), WHIP (1.00, T-6th), Baserunners/9 IP (9.00, T-6th), Walks/9 IP (2.25, 9th), HR/9 IP (0.00, T-1st).
• Is set to make his 3rd start of the young season and his 111th career (14th as a member of the Cardinals).
• Leads all Cardinals pitchers with 73 strikeouts since being acquired at the 2022 Trade Deadline (8/2/22).
• Has not walked a left-handed batter since being acquired by the Cardinals (38 total batters faced). Joins Bailey Falter, Joey Kuhnel, Brooks Raley, Will Smith and Josh Winder as pitchers who have faced 38+ batters without a walk to a LHB since 8/1/22.
• Made his fourth Opening Day Roster and first with the Cardinals, adding to 2018, 2021 and 2022 with the Yankees. Was on the Injured List in 2019 and Taxi Squad in 2020.
• Is 8-3 as a member of the Cardinals and St. Louis has won 10 of his 13 starts.
• Has held his opposition to three earned runs or fewer in 79% (87-of-110) of his career starts. Ranks 18th among left-handed pitchers since 2017 with 87.
• Leads MLB pitchers in run support average (11.25).
LAST TIME OUT
• Improved to 2-0 for the second time in his career (2018) with seven scoreless innings at MIL (4/8) for a 6-0 win. Struck out a season-high nine, matching his single-game high as a member of the Cardinals. Snapped a four-game losing streak by the Cardinals.
DATE vs. RESULT DEC IP H R ER BB SO HR NP-S
4/8 @MIL W 6-0 W-2 7.0 3 0 0 2 9 0 100-61
2023
• Won his opening start of the season behind a 9-4 offensive effort vs. TOR (4/2) in a series clinching win.
• Threw 7.0 scoreless innings of three-hit ball at MIL (4/8). Was the longest outing by a Cardinals pitcher this season and his 2nd consecutive scoreless outing against an N.L. Central opponent on the road (16.0 IP streak).
