Pirates/Cardinals Game Two Preview

Trevor Williams (1-1, 3.74 ERA, 14.6% K/BB-rate) takes the hill tonight at 8:15 EST against Adam Wainwright (3-3, 4.71 ERA, 9.5% K/BB-rate). The Cardinals blew out the Bucs 17-4 last night with Pittsburgh looking to return the favor.

Wainwright’s last start on May 5th at Wrigley was rough, going five innings and giving up six earned runs with two walks and two strikeouts. It was his second worst outing of the 2019 season.

Williams’ last two outings has yielded 16 hits, nine earned runs, 11 strikeouts, and two walks through 12 innings pitched. He’s due for a bounce-back game.

Stats of Interest

-Through 134 batted ball events, Williams has allowed an average exit velocity of 86 MPH, a 5.2% barrel%, and a 34.3% hard-hit rate. He draws swings on 52% of his pitches with 20.6% of those resulting in whiffs.

-Through 111 batted ball events, Wainwright has allowed an average exit velocity of 88 MPH, a 9% barrel%, and a 43.6% hard-hit rate. He induces swings on 38.7% of pitches with 19.7% of those ending up as whiffs

-Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter has been a thorn in Williams’ side through 25 career plate appearances which sees him hitting .421 which includes three home runs and two doubles with just a 7.9% whiff rate.

-Jose Martinez and Yadier Molina, both with 20 career plate appearances against Williams, hold a .389 and .300 (respectively) batting average.

-Wainwright and Starling Marte have a bit of history against each other with 49 total plate appearances. Marte holds a .227 batting average with one triple and two home runs in 44 at-bats. Wainwright draws a whiff on one out of every four pitches thrown to Marte.

-Josh Bell (13 PA) and Francisco Cervelli (14 PA) have had success versus Wainwright, with Bell hitting .455 and Cervelli posting a .333 batting average against.

Temperatures are expected to float around the low 60’s to high 50’s with light winds pushing out towards center field and minimal chance of precipitation.