The St. Louis Cardinals currently are on the outside looking into the National League playoffs as they’re right on the fringe of a Wild Card spot with the regular season coming to an end. They are on their fourth game of a five-game set against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have their eyes set on the first draft pick in the 2021 MLB Draft with the worst record in the majors at 15-34 with 11 games left to play. The Pirates are an average home team with a 10-14 record at PNC Park.
The Cardinals will be sending “rookie” Kwang-Hyun Kim to the mound, who has pitched against the Pirates twice this season already. In his two outings (one start) he has thrown 7 innings while allowing a run on three hits and picking up a save. He has never pitched at PNC Park but if he continues pitching the way he has thus far this season, there shouldn’t be any concern. Kim will be pitching against top prospect Mitch Keller, who has seen this Cardinals team earlier this year. He pitched five innings of one run baseball on two hits to pick up his only win on the season.
The Pirates don’t fend well at the plate against southpaw pitchers besides shortstop Erik Gonzalez, who has a .314 batting average off them this season. The big bat in Pittsburgh’s lineup is Josh Bell and he is doing well in his last 15 games as he is batting .340 with a .982 OPS but isn’t doing well this season with runners in scoring position. In 33 at-bats with a runner in scoring position, Bell is 6-for-33 (.182) with just 13 RBI. The counting stats aren’t going to be there for the Pittsburgh lineup with how few runs they produce but they need their best hitters to begin producing if they want to take that next step.
Diamond in the Rough?
Due to their COVID outbreak that made every game from July 31 to August 14 postponed, the Cardinals are extremely fatigued from their grueling schedule down the stretch. They are currently in the midst of a stretch of playing 23 games in an 18-day stretch and are beginning to fall off because of it. Even with this stretch, Kwang-Hyun Kim has been a diamond in the rough for the pitching staff.
Kim is technically in his rookie season in the majors and looking great but he has been pitching in the KBO for the SK Wyverns from 2007-2019. The 31-year old pitched phenomenally in a subordinate baseball league, going 136-77 with a 3.27 ERA in almost 1700 innings pitched. Kim came to the Cardinals this season and has been pitching extremely well since his debut as he has only allowed 4 runs (2 earned) in 28.2 innings while on the big league roster. He has a four-pitch repertoire (four-seam fastball, slider, curve, changeup) and doesn’t light up the radar gun. Batters have just a .122 average off his 90 MPH fastball. Hitters aren’t able to get the barrel of the bat on his pitches and he is looking dominant because of it.
There’s Always Next Year
The Pittsburgh Pirates are not a good MLB team this season. They suffered a lot of injuries as they are missing two of their top starting pitchers in Chris Archer and Jameson Taillon before this season began. Two prospects that are highly ranked in their system in Anthony Alford and Kevin Kramer are out for the rest of the year as well. Cole Tucker also will be out for this game with a concussion and is on the 7-day Injured List while he recovers.
They have the worst record in baseball, rank last in team OBP, and are posting a 5.01 ERA entering the doubleheader. The best option is to get some of the young players some valuable major league experience as the season comes to an end. The Pirates are still in the first phase of a rebuild where they are developing a young core. They have a nice trio of everyday players that are currently healthy in Adam Frazier, Colin Moran, and Josh Bell but the rest are inexperienced. They are starting one of their most coveted prospects on the mound in Mitch Keller, who has a career 3.12 ERA in 539.1 innings while climbing through the Pittsburgh system. Continue to develop players and be players in 2021 and beyond but this season is a wash in terms of winning and losing.
Notable Trends
From Covers.com
- Pittsburgh: 10-14 at home
- Pittsburgh: 2-8 in their last 10 games
- St. Louis: 69-41 vs Pirates since 2014
- St. Louis: 4-2 in games Kim pitches
