The Pittsburgh Pirates have their hands full in Saturday’s second road tilt of their ensuing three-game series with the Colorado Rockies. Being on the road has typically ended in disappointment for the Pirates, while the home success has remained apparent for the Rockies. They’re a problem when playing at Coors Field, and the Pirates will be tasked with solving that problem in this game. Mitch Keller is slated to start at pitcher for the Pirates opposite of Colorado’s Jose Urena.
The Pirates sent the Rockies packing with a series loss when the two teams met up at PNC Park back in May. There’s hope they’ll be able to do the same in their weekend road trip to Coors Field, but something is clearly different about the Rockies when they’re playing in their home building.
They were knocking in runs like batting practice in their previous run-in against a San Diego Padres team with a top-10 run-scoring defense. So, the bar of difficulty will be raised significantly just on location with the Pirates serving as the away team in this series rematch.
The Pirates are allowing an average of 8.84 hits per game and 5.07 runs. They’re constantly getting pounded at the plate, and there may be no escaping it from happening in a place that has served as a house of horrors for opposing pitchers this season.
Pittsburgh will hitch their hopes to Mitch Keller not being swallowed by the fright fest when starting at pitcher on Saturday afternoon. He’s throwing a 4.88 ERA with a 3-6 record on the season. After being handed a loss by the hard-hitting New York Yankees, he recently bounced back with a solid road win against the Miami Marlins in a game where he held them to five hits and one run in seven innings.