Pittsburgh Pirates Sweep Doubleheader in Cincinnati

Young starting pitchers impress

Johan Oviedo started the first game of the doubleheader. Oviedo turned in his best major league outing since being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates and one of the best starts of his major league career.

Oviedo led the Pirates to victory in game one by pitching 5 scoreless innings. He allowed just one hit, walked two batters and struck out four. This was a terrific bounce back outing by Oviedo after he lasted just 1.2 innings against the New York Mets in his last outing. Oviedo continues to show very intriguing stuff and will continue to make starts for the Pittsburgh Pirates this month.

Game two saw 23-year-old righty Luis Ortiz starts for the Pirates. To say that Ortiz impressed would be a huge understatement. Ortiz pitched 5.2 scoreless innings and needed just 83 pitches to do so.

Ortiz threw 67.5% of his pitches for strikes and was aggressive throughout his start. He did not allow very many base runners, but when Red batters did reach base against Ortiz he continued to attack the strike zone.

The hard-throwing righty allowed just one hit, he walked three and struck out five. Ortiz generated 11 swings-and-missed. Throughout his start he lit up the radar gun. His fastball sat in the high-90s and he threw six pitches that eclipses 100 MPH, marking the second most pitches of 100+ MPH thrown by a Pirate pitcher in the StatCast Era.

Even though Ortiz was promoted as the team’s 29th man for the doubleheader, it will be difficult to not give him another start in the majors after the way he impressed on Tuesday. A fastball that averages 99 MPH, a plus slider and a 90+ MPH changeup will certainly play in the majors.

Outfielder Cal Mitchell continues to swing a hot bat

Since re-joining the Pittsburgh Pirates to start the month of September outfielder Cal Mitchell has been one of the team’s hottest hitters. Mitchell continued to swing a hot bat as part of Tuesday’s doubleheader, including one of the biggest hits in game one.

In the first game of the twin bill Mitchell was just 1-for-4. However, his lone hit was a two-run home run. Mitchell’s 5th home run of the season came in the 6th inning and put the game on ice, making the score 6-1 Pirates.

As Mitchell continues to be one of the team’s hottest hitters this month, he continues to push for regular playing time down the stretch. As we discuss on the site earlier in the day on Tuesday, Mitchell needs to, and absolutely has earned the right to be getting regular playing time for the remainder of the season.

Home runs, doubles power the Pirate offense in game one’s victory

A big reason the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Cincinnati Reds 6-1 in game one on Tuesday was due to power. In addition to Mitchell’s home run, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds each went deep for the Bucs as well.

Hayes also hit a double in addition to his home run. Rodolfo Castro, Michael Chavis and Ben Gamel all picked up doubles in the victory as well. Any time seven of a team’s 12 hits in a game go for extra bases, especially when three of them are home runs, it’s likely going to lead to offensive success.

Kevin Newman delivers the big hit in game two

The Pirate offense struggled to get going in game two. Thankfully, due to how well the Pirate pitching staff performed, they did not need much offense. This made a 7th inning hit with a runner in scoring position a big one.

In all reality, the 7th inning had two big hits. The first of these came when Castro lined a ball into the left-center field gap for his first hit of game two and second double of the day. Kevin Newman then game through the biggest hit of the game when he hit a ball just over the glove of Cincinnati shortstop Matt Reynolds to score Castro and give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. Newman’s hit proved to be enough in the 1-0 victory.

The Pirates will go for a four-game sweep when they send Roansy Contreras (3.29 ERA, 4.37 FIP) to the mound. Lefty Nick Lodolo (3.78 ERA, 3.68 FIP) is slated to pitch for the Reds. First pitch from Cincinnati is scheduled for 12:35 PM ET.