The Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox are two of the oldest franchises in Major League Baseball and Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark in the sport, just edging out Wrigley Field. Despite all the history these teams have, Fenway has only hosted the Pirates one other time. The only other time they faced off in the historic baseball haven was back in 2005.
After a disappointing exit out of the postseason for Boston in 2016 and a failure to reach them by the Pirates, both teams are motivated, but—of course—they chose different paths in the offseason with the Sox going big and acquiring Chris Sale while the Pirates opted for much smaller moves.
This series will be contested from Monday, April 3, 2017 through Thursday, April 6, 2017 at Fenway Park in Boston.
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Pitching Matchups
After taking home the hardware last year, Rick Porcello gets rewarded with the Opening Day start for the Boston Red Sox over newly acquired Chris Sale who gets the Game 2 nod. Porcello will face the Pirates’ Gerrit Cole. Last year, Cole started just 21 games, going 7-10 with a 3.88 ERA. It was a down year for the 26-year old right-hander who has outpitched Porcello leading up to last year.
While the Sox have arguably their best pitcher starting in Game 2, the Pirates turn to a youngster who they hope can replicate his success in 18 starts last year over a full season starting on Wednesday. Jamison Taillon gets the ball for the Pirates against Sale. Sale is a true ace, but the adjustment to Fenway Park and the Boston faithful can be hard, just ask fellow southpaw ace David Price. As for Taillon, he’s long been one of Pittsburgh’s top prospects; he pitched to a 3.38 ERA last year in 104 innings of work.
This series wraps up on Thursday with Chad Kuhl getting the start for Pittsburgh against Boston’s Eduardo Rodriguez.
The young southpaw for the Sox struggled at home last year going 0-4 with a 6.02 ERA. The Big Monster can be tough for lefties in Fenway and E-Rod has yet to show success there. Kuhl, meanwhile, was a groundball master in the minors and thrives on his sinker. He’s not as hyped as Taillon or Tyler Glasnow, but he came up pitched respectably. He’s followed that up with a solid spring, earning his rotation spot.
Betting Trends
Even with the injury to David Price, the Red Sox have opted to go with lefties back-to-back following Porcello. While Sale was obviously going to pitch Game 2 if not given the Opening Day bid, E-Rod so high in the rotation after some struggles last year is a bit surprising, but not so much after you look at the Pirates’ numbers against southpaws last year.
Pittsburgh ranked dead last in runs scored against lefties, though that is actually quite deceiving as it’s a result of far fewer opportunities. By mere coincidence, they had the fewest at bats against lefties of any team, 106 at bats fewer than the Marlins who were ranked No. 29.
In general, based on the roster, the Pirates should be a good hitting team against lefties. Most of its key players bat from the right side save for Gregory Polanco and John Jaso.
The numbers bear that out, too. Last year, the Pirates hit better against lefties with a .263 average compared to a .256 mark against righties. The team OBP and slugging also jumped up against southpaws.
What to Watch For
It’s a brand new world for the Red Sox who will be without David Ortiz for the first time since 2002.
Boston outscored everyone last year with 878 total runs scored. Ortiz was a big part of that with a monster season where he hit .315 with a .401 OBP and slugging .620. He slammed 38 home runs, drove in a league high 127 runs and slapped an AL leading 48 doubles. His OPS was the highest in the league, too, at 1.021—the fourth highest OPS of his career.
The Sox will miss his production, but they still have a very good and very deep lineup of stars including MVP runner up Mookie Betts, new DH Hanley Ramirez, shortstop Xander Bogaerts and the ageless Dustin Pedroia. Conventional wisdom says this team will still be a very good offensive club without Ortiz, but Big Papi was the heart and soul of the Fenway clubhouse. How does the team respond without their leader?
Another thing to keep an eye on for Boston is the bullpen. Craig Kimbrel is a great closer, but newly acquired Tyler Thornburg will start the year on the DL and Carson Smith is recovering from Tommy John surgery. With Koji Uehara, Brad Ziegler and Junichi Tazawa gone, too, this team is void of setup men to bridge the gap and the first few times through the order, it’s hard to count on more than five or six innings from your starting staff.
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