After losing seven of their first nine matches, Pittsburgh Pirates has won two in a row and will have Ess Paul Skeps at Haugen when they are hosting St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday evening.
Skese (1-0, 1.46 era), last year’s National League Rookie of the Year, will make its third start of the season and oppose veteran Sonny Gray (1-0, 5.73 era) in the second match in a three-game series.
Gray will try to help the cardinals snap a losing line with four games, when they dropped Monday opener 8-4 at Pittsburgh after three consecutive road losses against Boston Red Sox.
Even before Pirates turned his fortune with back-to-back victories over the New York Yankees on Sunday and the Cardinals on Monday, Skenes went to beat for their team away from the field.
Skese moved the blame to Pirates players for their early season fight after the fans’ song by “Sell Team” on the opening day aimed at the owner Bob Nutting.
“Mr. Nutting and (Head of Derek Shelton) are not the ones who play,” Skeps told ESPN. “We are the ones playing. If we were 8-0 through how many games we have played right now, the fans are not Boo. We have to play better.”
Pittsburgh made a season high eight runs on Monday night against the Cardinals after pulling out a 5-4 extra-input victory over Yankees the day before.
Skeps will try to keep speed after throwing seven rounds and allowed only one drive, which was unprocessed, in his last start on Wednesday in Tampa Bay. Skene beat out six and gave up three hits and no walks.
As good as Skene has been so far in his career, he has not yet won a victory against the cardinals and goes 0-2 in three career starts even though he has a 1.31 era over 20 2/3 rounds.
Gray, who is 5-4 with a 4.20 era in 12 career appearance (11 starts) against the pirates, will try to turn the tide for St. Louis. The Cardinals have won both their starts so far this season, despite some uneven results.
St. Louis backed him up at the record in his latest excursion on Wednesday against Los Angeles Angels, when Gray gave up five runs on five hits including two home runs over six plus ins. Gray, however, beat nine and did not publish a walk. St. Louis’ Bullpen limited the damage in that game and the Cardinals occurred with a 12-5 victory.
Gray, Cardinal’s opening day starts, has 15 strikes over 11 rounds, but has allowed seven runs and three homers.
“This is the worst type of day when you feel amazing and the ball comes out the way you want it to do, you feel dominant for an inning and then you go to a suspension and four hits later, you give up four runs,” said Gray after the Wednesday competition.
Cardinals hope to start their crime, which is ranked second in Majors with a .851-base-plus-lingering percent. St. Louis beats .297 as a team (tops in the big leagues) and is on average 6.6 runs per match through their first 10 matches (second in Majors).
Masyn Winn and Yohel Pozo hammered each one for the Cardinals in Monday loss, and Brendan Donovan had three hits.
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