The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles will continue their weekend series this Saturday night. Two young clubs that got off to hot starts, the Pirates are looking to get back in a groove. Meanwhile, the Orioles plan to just keep winning and avoid a similar fate to Pittsburgh. As with Friday's series opener, this game is taking place in Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This game is also scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m. EDT, pending the weather. Rain may delay the start.
Before Friday's game, the Pirates came into Baltimore with only one win in their last 10 tries. They've managed to cling to the NL Central's top spot because the rest of the division is also struggling, but rewinding to April performance-wise will put them in the driver's seat early. Offensive struggles were chief among Pittsburgh's issues lately, as they were putting up 1.5 runs per contest over that 10-game span. Predictably, a lot of their numbers are also awful in that stretch (a .566 OPS and .181 batting average chief among them). Pittsburgh is great at drawing walks though, and their 10th-best OBP will always provide them chances to get runs across. Especially since it's paired with the most stolen bases in the majors. Things have been ugly in May, but there's an entire month for the lineup to look back on and draw success from. Particularly for Bryan Reynolds, a key bat who hasn't homered since the tea m's seventh game.
On the mound, the Pirates will look for Roansy Contreras to bounce back from a pair of duds this month. In his two May starts, Contreras has been charged with nine runs in 10.1 innings of work. He's walked as many batters as he's struck out in the last two, while also allowing a homer in each outing. He was superb in April, sans one start, so like the rest of the team he's trying to get back to that form. Contreras has been better on the road this season, so maybe that'll spark his resurgence. If he's not sharp, a reliever group that's been solid at limiting runs will have to stop the bleeding in this one.