PITTSBURGH PIRATES NOTES:
IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: Today the Pirates begin their 137th season of professional baseball in the National League…The Bucs have produced a 72-64 record in their first 136 N.L. openers (56-49 on the road and 16-15 at home)…The Pirates began the 2022 campaign with a loss at St. Louis on April 7.
FOR OPENERS: Mitch Keller will make his first career Opening Day start for the Pirates…This is the seventh straight year the Pirates will have a different pitcher start on Opening Day…JT Brubaker got the starting nod last year on Opening Day in St. Louis, Chad Kuhl had the honors in 2021, Joe Musgrove took the hill on Opening Day 2020, Jameson Taillon started in 2019, Ivan Nova got the nod in 2018 and Gerrit Cole did it in 2017 (the last Pirate to start Opening Day in consecutive years was Francisco Liriano from 2014-16)…Since 2000, Keller is now the ninth different homegrown pitcher to start on Opening Day.
THE MATURATION OF MITCH: Mitch Keller posted a 3.22 ERA (120.1ip/43er) in his last 22 starting assignments last season after rejoining the rotation on May 31…Keller’s 3.22 ERA from May 31 through the end of the regular season ranked 12th among all qualified National League pitchers during that time.
COMING OF AGE: At 26 years and 360 days old, Mitch Keller will become the youngest Opening Day starting pitcher for the Pirates since Gerrit Cole got the honors in 2017 at 26 years and 207 days.
WELCOME HOME CUTCH: Andrew McCutchen returned to the Pittsburgh Pirates this offseason after signing a one-year contract on January 20…McCutchen was a member of Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster for eight straight seasons from 2010-17, making seven straight starts in center field before starting in right field in 2017… McCutchen was the first Pittsburgh player to make seven straight Opening Day starts in center field since Andy Van Slyke did so from 1988-1994.
THE CENTER OF IT ALL: The Pirates have used a different Opening Day starter in center field in each of the last five seasons…Coming into this year, the previous five players manning center field on Opening Day were Bryan Reynolds (2022), Anthony Alford (2021), Jarrod Dyson (2020), JB Shuck (2019) and Starling Marte (2018).
GREAT AMERICAN RESULTS: Andrew McCutchen enters today with 21 career home runs here at Great American Ball Park…That’s tied for the fourth-most by any visiting player in the ballpark’s history along with Albert Pujols, trailing only Ryan Braun (28), Lance Berkman (23) and Anthony Rizzo (22).
SEEING RED: The Pirates are facing the Reds for the 31st time in their Opening Day game, however, the Reds will be facing the Pirates for the 30th time…Because of a scheduling quirk in 2001, the Reds opened the season with one game against the Braves before hosting the Bucs in a three-game series…Dating back to their first Opening Day meeting in 1892, Pittsburgh has gone 19-11 against Cincinnati on Opening Day while Cincinnati has posted a 10-19 record against Pittsburgh…The teams most recently met in the season opener in 2019, with the Reds winning a 5-3 decision.
OPENING ON THE ROAD: The Bucs are opening the season on the road for the seventh straight year and for the eighth time in the last nine years…Prior to the last seven years, the last time the Pirates opened on the road more than seven straight years was when they did so in 60 straight seasons from 1894 to 1953…The Pirates have now opened the regular season on the road 105 times, compared to just 32 times on their home turf.
RED HOT AGAINST CINCY: Ke’Bryan Hayes enters today with a .342 career average (38-for-111) against the Reds… The only five players with a higher average against the Reds since the beginning of the 2020 season (minimum 60 plate appearances) are Ben Gamel (.361), Austin Riley (.358), Harrison Bader (.350), Nico Hoerner (.349) and Kris Bryant (.344)…Hayes has hit safely in 14 of 17 career games at Great American, going 24-for-67 (.358).
THE ROAD AHEAD: Pittsburgh’s season-opening road trip will also take the team to Boston for a three-game series against the Red Sox…It will be Pittsburgh’s third trip to Fenway Park in interleague play after also doing so in 2005 and 2017.
SPRING TRAINING RECAP: The Pirates went 9-18-4 in spring training in their 55th season of spring training in Bradenton…It was the 100th year of baseball being played in Bradenton…Ke’Bryan Hayes paced the Pirates with four home runs while hitting .341 average (14-for-41) in 15 games…Canaan Smith-Njigba recorded a team-leading 14 RBI, which were tied for the third-most in the Grapefruit League…JT Brubaker ranked third in the Grapefruit League with 26 strikeouts, while Johan Oviedo finished tied for seventh with 24 punchouts.
23 – RHP MITCH KELLER
YEAR W-L ERA G GS CG SHO IP H R ER BB SO
2022 5-12 3.91 31 29 0 0 159.0 162 77 69 60 138
2023 0-0 0.00 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
M.L.CAREER 12-29 5.00 70 68 0 0 329.1 374 194 183 143 311
MITCH KELLER: The26-year-oldrighthander will make his first career Opening Day start this afternoon…Went1-1 with a3.45ERA (15.2ip/6er) in five starts during spring training…Made his last spring training appearance on 3/18against the Twins.
vs. CINCINNATI:1-4 with a6.80ERA in 11career starts (49.0ip/37er)…Went0-1 with a7.07ERA (14.0ip/11er) in three starts in 2022…Lost an 8-2decision (4.2ip/5er)at PNCParkon 5/13, had a no-decision (4.1ip/5er) in an 8-5 win in game two of a doubleheader at Great American BallPark on 5/7and had a no-decision (5.0ip/1r)on 9/27atPNCPark…Went1-2 with a6.55ERA (22.0ip/16er) in five starts during the 2021 season…Made his MLB debut hereat GABP on 5/27/19in game two of a doubleheader, where he lost an 8-1decision (4.0ip/6r) to Sonny Gray
CINCINNATI REDS NOTES:
147th Home Opening Day Game
This afternoon’s game will be the Reds’ 147th Home Opening Day game, their 21st home opener at Great American Ball Park and their 20th to open a season at GABP…the Reds are 70-75-1 in home openers, including 65-69-1 vs National League opponents, 1-2 vs American League opponents (3-1 loss in 13 innings vs LAA in 2013, 9-7 win vs Det in 2020, 10-5 loss vs Cle in 2022) and 8-12 at GABP…is expected to be the 124th regular season sellout at GABP and the 19th sellout of the 21 season home openers (excluding the 2020 & 2021 seasons affected by COVID-19)… Thursday afternoon’s is the first of the Reds’ 2 Opening Day games…a week later in Philadelphia, on April 6, the Reds will be the opponent for the Phillies’ home opener at Citizens Bank Park.
Reds vs Pirates on Opening Day
The Reds are playing the Pirates for the 30th time on Opening Day, but the Pirates are playing the Reds for the 31st time in their Opening Day game…because of a scheduling oddity in 2001, the Reds opened the season with 1 game vs the Braves, then began a traditional 3-game series vs the Pirates, who were “off” the day prior…dating back to 1892, Cin is 10-19 vs Pit in 29 season openers, while Pit is 19-11 vs Cin in their 30 openers…the teams most recently met in the season opener in 2019, when Zach Duke and the Reds beat Jameson Taillon, 5-3…Reds starter Luis Castillo threw 5.2 innings (2h, 1er, 3bb, 8k), while Pirates starter Taillon went 6.0 innings (5h, 4er, 2bb, 4k)…Cin’s José Peraza and pinch hitter Derek Dietrich homered, as did Pit’s Corey Dickerson…on Opening Day 2003, the Reds and Pirates played the first regular season game at Great American Ball Park…that 2003 game was the first season opener between the Reds and Pirates since 1963.
Opening Day Veteran
Joey Votto leads all players with 14 games and 61 plate apps on Opening Day games at Great American Ball Park (14-53, .264, 1 2b, 3hr, 7rbi)…he homered in 2010 off StL’s Chris Carpenter, in 2011 off Mil’s Kameron Loe and in 2020 off Det’s Matthew Boyd…according to @EliasSports, 154 players have played for the Reds in the previous 19 season openers played at GABP.
Opening Day Starter
RHP Hunter Greene will make his first career Opening Day start…at age 23 years, 236 days, he will become the first pitcher age 25 or under to start for the Reds on Opening Day since 1980, when at age 22 years, 232 days RHP Frank Pastore beat Phil Niekro and the Braves, 9-0.
Short Hops
For the seventh consecutive year, the Reds will start a different shortstop on Opening Day (Zack Cozart 2012-2017, José Peraza 2018, José Iglesias 2019, Freddy Galvis 2020, Eugenio Suárez 2021, Kyle Farmer 2022)…will be the Reds’ longest such streak since 1900 for that position…3 previous times since 1900, there were stretches of at least 7 straight Opening Days without consecutive starts at shortstop by the same player (though not necessarily 7 different shortstops): 1906-1914 (Mike Mowrey, 2 starts), 1968-1974 (Dave Concepcion, 3 starts) and 2004-2012 (Alex Gonzalez, 2 starts)…in 2022, Kyle Farmer led the Reds with 97 starts at shortstop…on 11/18/22, Farmer was traded to the Twins for RHP Casey Legumina…courtesy @EliasSports.
Bonus Baseball
The Reds are 11-3 in Home Opening Day extra-inning games, most recently a 13-inning, 3-1 loss vs LAA in 2013 that ranked as the second-longest Opening Day in team history…most recently won an extra-inning Opening Day game in 1990 at Hou (8-4 win, 11 innings) and most recently won an extra-inning game at home in 1988 (5-4 win vs StL, 12 innings).
At Night & On The Road
The Reds played 3 openers at night (1966, 1994, 2020)…opened on the road 6 times, including 3 times because of inclement weather (1877, 1885, 1966), twice because of labor strife (1990, 2022) and once as scheduled (1888).
TODAY’S GAME
• Is the Reds’ 147th Home Opening Day game and their 21st home opener at Great American Ball Park…are 8-12 in home openers at GABP.
• The Reds are 70-75-1 in home openers overall.
• Is Game 1 of the 2023 championship season and Game 1 of a 6-game homestand that concludes with a 3-game series vs the Cubs.
• Following this homestand the Reds will travel to Phi (3g) and to Atl (3g) for their first road trip, including the Phillies’ home opener next Thu.
SERIES NOTES
• In 2022, the Reds went 7-12 vs Pit and finished the season with a 7-game losing streak, their longest vs the Pirates since a 7-game skid from 7/20- 9/28, 2018.
• Over the 2021 and 2022 seasons at Great American Ball Park, the Reds are 12-7 vs Pit with a 121-70 advantage in runs scored.
• The Reds have won 22 of the last 36 games overall vs the Pirates, including 17 of the last 24 games vs Pit at GABP.
21 Hunter Greene, RHP
• Is 23 years, 236 days old…in just his second season, this afternoon is making his 25th Major League appearance and start.
• Will become the first pitcher age 25 or under to start for the Reds on Opening Day since 1980, when at age 22 years, 232 days RHP Frank Pastore beat Phil Niekro and the Braves, 9-0…courtesy @EliasSports.
• Will become the first second-year pitcher to start for the Reds on Opening Day since 26-year-old RHP Raisel Iglesias started the 6-2 win vs the Phillies in the 2016 season opener…courtesy @EliasSports.
• In 2022, in his age 22 season ranked among National League rookie pitching leaders in starts (1st, 24), innings pitched (2nd, 125.2), strikeouts (2nd, 164), opponents’ BA (2nd, .222), WHIP (2nd, 1.21) and ERA (6th, 4.44).
• Led the Reds’ staff in starts, innings pitched and strikeouts.
• Was 1 of only 7 pitchers in the National League and 16 pitchers in the Major Leagues to throw a shutout.
• Was the National League Player of the Week for 6/6-6/12, the only Reds player so honored in 2022 (2gs, 1-0, 0.75, 12ip, 3h, 1er, 2bb, 15k, .079baa).
• Was 1 of only 6 Major League rookies to win his league’s Player of the Week award (Chc’s Seiya Suzuki, LAA’s Reid Detmers, Sea’s Julio Rodríguez, KC’s Vinnie Pasquantino, Cle’s Steven Kwan).
• Is the only Major League rookie since 1900 to produce in a season at least 3 apps in which he threw at least 6.0 innings with at least 8 strikeouts and no more than 1 hit (5/15 at Pit, 6/6 vs Ari, 8/1 at Mia)…no pitcher in modern history, regardless of rookie status, has produced more than 3 such games…in his final start of the season, in Game 160 vs Cubs, recorded 6.0 innings and 8 strikeouts but allowed 2 hits.
• Allowed 2 runs or fewer in all 9 of his starts in which he pitched at least 6.0 innings, 8 times allowed no more than 1 run and 4 times in those 9 apps allowed 0 runs.
• In his last 8 starts of the season posted a 1.75 ERA (46.1ip, 30h, 66k).
• In his last 6 starts of the season posted a 1.02 ERA, the third-lowest ERA ever by a Reds rookie over any single-season, 6-start span behind Gary Nolan (0.75, June-July 1967) and Elmer Riddle (0.88, August 1941).
• From 8/5-9/16 missed 43 days and 40 games while on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder strain…went 4-12, 5.26 in 20 starts prior to the injury and 1-1, 0.78 in 4 starts after he came off the 15-day IL.
• Following his 2022 rookie season was the Reds’ nominee for MLB’s prestigious Lou Gehrig Memorial Award for exemplary contributions to his community.
• Was selected by the Reds in the first round (2nd overall pick) of the June 2017 first-year player draft…was rated by MLB.com the best overall prospect and by Baseball America the best high school player in that draft…the Twins selected high school SS Royce Lewis with the No. 1 overall pick.
• Heading into the 2017 draft, became the 13th high school athlete ever to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
• Missed the 2019 season while recovering from 4/9/19 “Tommy John” surgery.
