Game Thread: Pirates Drop In On Cardinals

Chris Archer will try to get back on track under the arch Friday night, taking on Dakota Hudson and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Both clubs have lost five straight, with the Cardinals falling out of a wild card spot in the process. They enter this series trailing the division leading Cubs by four games and the wild card by half a game.

Archer’s (3-8, 5.35) disappointing season has been well documented, though he has been having some success with the fastball of late. Since ditching the two-seamer on June 22, batters have a .175 batting average and a .349 slugging percentage against his heater. I wrote about this development in detail for The Point of Pittsburgh this week.

Hudson (10-6, 3.99) has had trouble going deep into games lately, failing to pitch more than four innings in each of his last two starts. He has allowed nine runs- eight earned- in 7.2 innings in that stretch.

Hudson’s most used pitch is a sinker (48.8%), and he has struggled to throw it against lefties this year. Josh Bell hits sinkers and two-seamers better than any other pitch, recording a .736 slugging percentage and a .500 wOBA.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:15 p.m.. Eastern.

Lineups

Pirates

2B Adam Frazier

RF Bryan Reynolds

CF Starling Marte

1B Josh Bell

LF Jose Osuna

3B Colin Moran

SS Kevin Newman

C Jacob Stallings

P Chris Archer

Cardinals

CF Dexter Fowler

RF Tommy Edman

1B Paul Goldschmidt

LF Marcell Ozuna

SS Paul DeJong

3B Matt Carpenter

2B Kolten Wong

C Matt Wieters

P Dakota Hudson