Pirates and Cubs go back to Little League

The Pirates and Cubs head to Williamsport, Pa for the third annual Little League Classic at 7:10 p.m. Eastern on Sunday evening. Mitch Keller (1-1, 7.94) will start for the home team Pirates vs veteran left-hander Jose Quintana (10-7, 4.11) of the Cubs.

This will be Quintana’s fourth start of the year against the Pirates. So far he’s held Pittsburgh batters to a combined .524 OPS on a 225/256/268 line. In 20 innings he’s walked 4 and struck out 21.

Quintana has been average this year against right-handed batters, allowing a .766 OPS (268/316/450) while being very tough on left-handers, limiting both power and walks, as they’ve managed just a .637 OPS (256/281/355)

Keller is making his fifth major league start, as he was named this year’s top pitching prospect in the Triple-A International League. He faced the Angels six days ago in Anaheim, allowing one earned run in five innings on five hits and two walks, striking out four.

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CUBS

1 L Jason Heyward CF

2 R Nicholas Castellanos RF

3 R Kris Bryant 3B

4 L Anthony Rizzo 1B

5 R Javier Baez SS

6 L Kyle Schwarber LF

7 S Victor Caratini C

8 L Tony Kemp 2B

9 R Jose Quintana LHP

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PIRATES

1 R Kevin Newman SS

2 L Adam Frazier 2B

3 R Starling Marte CF

4 S Josh Bell 1B

5 S Bryan Reynolds LF

6 R Pablo Reyes RF

7 L Colin Moran 3B

8 R Jacob Stallings C

9 R Mitch Keller RHP