Pittsburgh Pirates Adjust Pitching Rotation Following Rain Out

ST. LOUIS, MO - SEPTEMBER 10: Trevor Williams #34 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium on September 10, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS, MO - SEPTEMBER 10: Trevor Williams #34 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches against the St. Louis Cardinals in the first inning at Busch Stadium on September 10, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /
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Following Saturday afternoon’s rain out in Cincinnati, the Pittsburgh Pirates have made some changes to the order of their starting rotation.

For a third consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had a game in their season-opening series rained out. Saturday afternoon’s scheduled match up between the Pirates and Cincinnati Reds was rained out. It will now be made up as part of a split doubleheader on Memorial Day.

Due to this rain out, Clint Hurdle has rearranged the Pirates starting rotation moving forward. Originally, Joe Musgrove was scheduled to pitch today, but this is just one of a variety of changes that have been made.

As we found out yesterday, Trevor Williams will start for the Pirates today instead of Musgrove. This makes sense as Williams was scheduled to start yesterday, and, typically, after a rain out that day’s scheduled starter will be pushed back to the following day.

After this, things start to get murky.

Instead of then pushing Musgrove back to Monday, Chris Archer will still start the home opener. This is understandable as pitching the home opener is a great honor, it’s one Archer has earned, and one he had already been promised. Additionally, teams hate to throw their top two starters off of their routine.

This is part of the reason why Jameson Taillon is still scheduled to start against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night. However, on Thursday, instead of Musgrove taking the mound righty Jordan Lyles will make his Pirate debut.

Lyles is currently on the 10-day injured list. He started the season on the IL in order to pitch in a minor league game on Friday to get to the 6 inning, 100-pitch threshold that the Pirates require their starting pitchers to get to before making their season debut.

The new starting rotation order will look like this for the upcoming week:

Sunday – Williams
Monday – Archer
Tuesday – OFF
Wednesday – Taillon
Thursday – Lyles
Friday – Musgrove
Saturday – Williams
Sunday – Archer

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Additionally, Musgrove will be available to pitch in relief today. If the game is a blow out, or the team needs a long reliever, look for Hurdle to try and get Musgrove some work today. It would be beneficial to do so in order to avoid Musgrove sitting too long before he makes his 2019 debut on Friday night.