Game Thread: Pittsburgh Hosts Seattle for Game Two

Tuesday night in Pittsburgh stars two teams with records worse than 20 games below .500. And you probably could’ve guessed that by looking at the pitching matchup and starting lineups. After getting blanked 6-0 last night, the Pirates will hope to avoid their fifth loss in a row by sending righty Dario Agrazal (4-4, 4.91) to the mound against fellow youngster Justin Dunn (0-0. 27.00).

Agrazal continues to try to make his bid for a rotation spot in 2020, but he hasn’t hit the six-inning mark in any starts since mid-July. His last start in San Francisco wasn’t completely terrible (three runs, two earned, on three hits and a walk while striking out two), but he struggled mightily in the fifth inning, forcing the Bucs to pull him early. Agrazal will need to start finding more effectiveness in the second and third time through the order if he wants to survive as a low-strikeout starter at the major league level.

Dunn on the other hand is looking for any sort of improvement over his first career MLB start. The 23-year-old righty didn’t make it out of the first inning, as he walked five hitters and was tagged with two earned runs before getting pulled having recorded just two outs. Dunn was pretty dominate in AAA Arkansas this season, recording 158 strikeouts over 131.2 innings pitched while boastins a nice 1.19 WHIP. We’ll see how his stuff matches up against major league hitters (kinda) if he can calm the nerves and make it a few frames on Tuesday.

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MARINERS

1 L Shed Long LF

2 L J.P. Crawford SS

3 R Austin Nola 1B

4 L Kyle Seager 3B

5 R Kyle Lewis RF

6 R Tom Murphy C

7 S Dee Gordon 2B

8 R Dylan Moore CF

9 R Justin Dunn RHP

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PIRATES

1 R Kevin Newman SS

2 S Bryan Reynolds CF

3 L Colin Moran 3B

4 R Jose Osuna 1B

5 L Adam Frazier 2B

6 R Elias Diaz C

7 L Kevin Kramer RF

8 R Erik Gonzalez LF

9 R Dario Agrazal RHP