Game Thread: Last dance of the season for Bucs, Reds

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2019 season began against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, and today it ends against the Reds at home in PNC Park. Trevor Williams (7-8, 5.52 ERA) takes his final season hill for the Bucs, with Tyler Mahle (2-12, 5.34 ERA) going for the Reds after scheduled starter Trevor Bauer was scratched due to an unspecified illness.

Williams’s season, like seemingly most of the Pirates’ pitching staff’s, was marred by injuries; he missed nearly a month in the early going with a right side strain. His last outing on September twenty-second against the Milwaukee Brewers doesn’t look bad at first glance—five innings with three hits, two runs, two walks, and six strikeouts. However, those two runs were both homers. His overall record might have been better had he gotten some run support, but along with Joe Musgrove he’s been the workhorse of the Bucs’ starters this year.

Mahle hopes to celebrate his twenty-fifth birthday today with a victory, but those have been hard to come by for him this year. He too has struggled with injuries and less-than-adequate run support, and in his last outing on September twenty-fifth, also against the Brewers, he lasted just two and a third innings, giving up eight runs on seven hits, three of those being home runs. The Reds had planned for that start to be his final one for the year, but Bauer’s illness will get him the call today.

It’s been a disappointing season, but it’s still one more day of Pirates baseball. The first pitch comes at 3:05 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.

LINEUPS

REDS

1 R Jose Peraza SS

2 L Joey Votto 1B

3 R Eugenio Suarez 3B

4 R Aristides Aquino RF

5 L Josh VanMeter LF

6 R Kyle Farmer 2B

7 R Curt Casali C

8 L Brian O’Grady CR

9 R Tyler Mahle RHP

PIRATES

1 R Kevin Newman SS

2 L Adam Frazier 2B

3 S Melky Cabrera RF

4 R Jose Osuna 1B

5 R Pablo Reyes CF

6 R Jake Elmore LF

7 R Jacob Stallings C

8 R Erik Gonzales 3B

9 R Trevor Williams RHP