Gerrit Cole’s excellent 2015 has come with three starts in which he didn’t pitch at least six innings. All three have come against the Cincinnati Reds, including the 4 2/3 inning shelling at the hands of the Reds back in June that might be his only legitimately bad start all season. Like much of the Pirates/Reds dynamic this year, I don’t really understand this. I suppose all we can do is hope that last night’s win changed something in that dynamic that will allow the Pirates to take the final two games of this four-game set against a depleted Red team that’s seen a few of its best players shipped off in recent trades.
Tonight, the Pirates will see Raisel Iglesias on the mound. Iglesias makes me a bit nervous; he hasn’t had a great year with the Reds this year, but he’s put up a few big-strikeout/low-walk starts. Unknown pitchers with the ability to run up a big strikeout total seem like the guys that always get to the Pirates, hence my nervousness. Iglesias’s problem is that despite the strikeouts, he gets hit hard. He’s given up a homer in each of his last four big league starts, and even though his walk total isn’t huge, he’s had two multi-HBP starts this year.
That’s not to say that I’m sure he’ll dominate the Pirates tonight, or anything. In any circumstances other than the Pirates’ lack of success against the Reds in 2015, I’d be sure that Raisel Iglesias vs. Gerrit Cole was a great matchup for the Pirates. Let’s hope that tonight’s the night Cole gets past his struggles with the Reds.
First pitch is at 7:10.
Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images
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