Game Thread: Rubber Match Between Bucs and Reds

After a heated brawl and strong postgame words from both clubs last night, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds will get together once more for a matinee matchup at 12:35 pm Eastern on Wednesday afternoon in Great American Ballpark. The young right-handed starter Dario Agrazal (2-1, 3.24) will take the ball for the Bucs, and he’ll be opposed by Reds ace Luis Castillo (9-4, 2.71).

Agrazal’s last start was a bumpy one at the New York Mets, allowing five runs on three homers in just over five innings of work. Due to the lack of strikeouts, those types of outings are bound to happen when the young call-up is missing the edges of the strikezone. Agrazal will look to get back on track in just his seventh start of his young career, and the task will be slightly lest daunting with recently-traded Yasiel Puig out of the lineup.

The right-handed phenom Castillo was also roughed up in his last outing at home against the Colorado Rockies, allowing six earned runs on two homers in five innings pitched. Even with that blip on the radar, Castillo still sports a respectable 3.65 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP in four starts this month. He’s also struck out an impressive 29 batters in 24.2 innings pitched in July. The young flamethrower has allowed two earned runs (four runs total) in 11 innings pitched against this Pirates club so far in 2019.

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PIRATES

1 L Adam Frazier 2B

2 S Bryan Reynolds RF

3 R Starling Marte CF

4 S Josh Bell 1B

5 S Melky Cabrera LF

6 L Colin Moran 3B

7 R Kevin Newman SS

8 R Elias Diaz C

9 R Dario Agrazal RHP

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Reds

1 L Jesse Winker RF

2 L Joey Votto 1B

3 R Eugenio Suarez 3B

4 L Scooter Gennett 2B

5 L Josh VanMeter LF

6 R Nick Senzel CF

7 R Jose Iglesias SS

8 S Tucker Barnhart C

9 R Luis Castillo RHP

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