Nova & Pirates look to take series in Miami

Ivan Nova (1-1, 5.19) will make his fourth start of the year as the 10-4 Pirates try to take two of three in their road series with the 4-10 Miami Marlins, who counter with Jose Urena (0-2, 5.06)

Urena is a hard throwing right-hander who’s beginning his third year with the Marlins, owning a 4.73 career ERA. So far in 2018, in three starts, he’s collected 13 strikeouts in 16 innings.

Pitch analysis from 2017 shows Urena vulnerable to left-handed batters, where he doesn’t throw his fastball for strikes and has average contact and whiff rates. His actual career splits show a 108 tOPS vs lefties, 91 vs righties. The totals by the lefties are inflated by nearly as many walks as strikeouts and an isolated power nearing .200, despite a rather low .268 BABIP. As is typical, he uses the change as his primary off-speed pitch to opposite hand batters and slider to same side.

2017 Jose Urena

vs LHB

Type Use wOBA MPH Str% Con% Whf% GB%

CH 30% .420 88.9 .618 .445 .200 .392

FT 29% .332 95.5 .587 .289 .159 .521

FF 20% .347 95.6 .553 .310 .083 .396

SL 15% .362 85.1 .597 .309 .208 .147

vs RHB

Type Use wOBA MPH Str% Con% Whf% GB%

SL 31% .269 85.0 .664 .266 .300 .424

FF 28% .306 96.0 .670 .353 .092 .517

FT 25% .278 95.9 .640 .283 .170 .561

CH 12% .332 89.0 .634 .346 .225 .444

Despite being Sunday, manager Clint Hurdle has only made one change in the lineup, subbing in Sean Rodriguez at shortstop. For the Marlins, Cameron Maybin makes his first appearance of the series, starting in left field, as Derek Dietrich shifts to first base, with Justin Bour taking a seat.

.

PIRATES

1 R Josh Harrison 2B

2 L Gregory Polanco RF

3 R Starling Marte CF

4 S Josh Bell 1B

5 L Corey Dickerson LF

6 C Francisco Cervelli C

7 L Colin Moran 3B

8 R Sean Rodriguez SS

9 R Ivan Nova P

.

1 L J.B. Shuck RF

2 R Miguel Rojas SS

3 R Starlin Castro 2B

4 L Derek Dietrich 1B

5 R Brian Anderson 3B

6 R Cameron Maybin LF

7 R Lewis Brinson CF

8 R Chad Wallach C

9 R Jose Urena P