{"id":658066,"date":"2026-04-02T04:19:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658066\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T04:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:19:02","slug":"pittsburgh-pirates-vs-cincinnati-reds-april-1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658066\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Pirates vs Cincinnati Reds &#8211; April 1, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img width=\"750\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/andrewabbott05-750x400.jpg\" class=\"cb-fi-standard wp-post-image\" alt=\"Andrew Abbott (Photo: Redleg Nation Staff)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Redleg Nation Staff<\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates put a hurting on the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, winning 8-3 and evening up the series. This afternoon the two teams will complete the series with the winning taking a victory for the 3-game set. First pitch is set for 12:40pm ET if the weather is willing to play nice.<\/p>\n<p>Starting LineupsStarting Pitchers<\/p>\n<p>Stats are from 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Abbott<\/p>\n<p>2025 saw Andrew Abbott make the NL All-Star team and it was well deserved. The lefty had a great first half and while he didn\u2019t keep the same results through the second half he still put together an outstanding season overall with an ERA of 2.87 on the year and he finished 8th in the National League Cy Young voting.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2025 season Abbott pitched better at home, where his ERA was 2.39 in 16 starts. His platoon splits aren\u2019t as big as you may expect for a left-handed pitcher. Righties do have a better OPS against him but it\u2019s only by 60 points and it\u2019s basically all because they hit for a bit more power \u2013 though it\u2019s still not much power at all.<\/p>\n<p>2025 Splits<\/p>\n<p>SplitPAH2B3BHRBBKAVGOBPSLGRHH5101101911734109.234.287.387LHH174381002940.236.279.335<\/p>\n<p>2025 Pitch Usage<\/p>\n<p>4-SeamCutterCurveSliderChangeVelo92.788.580.482.584.6Usage47%4%11%17%20%<\/p>\n<p>Paul Skenes<\/p>\n<p>In the only start from Skenes this year he deal with some poor defense in center and couldn\u2019t make it out of the first inning after two misplayed balls extended the inning, leading to him giving up five runs and recording just two outs. His control wasn\u2019t exactly there, either, as he walked two batters and hit another on Opening Day. Given his history I wouldn\u2019t expect to see something like that again.<\/p>\n<p>The 2-time All-Star entered the year with a 1.97 ERA for his career in 320.2 innings. Last season he won the Cy Young Award for his efforts at age 23. Skenes is dominant on the road and at home. He\u2019s also very, very good against both lefties and righties. But left-handed hitters do hit better against him. They walk more often and they do hit for more power (but still almost no power).<\/p>\n<p>2025 Splits<\/p>\n<p>SplitPAH2B3BHRBBKAVGOBPSLGRHH3396017041492.186.227.276LHH39476202728124.210.272.334<\/p>\n<p>2025 Pitch Usage\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>4-seam2-seamCurveSliderChangeVelo98.295.583.884.788.7Usage39%24%5%22%11%When and WhereGame time: 12:40pm ETWhere: Great American Ball Park, CincinnatiWatch: Reds MLB Channel, Reds.tv (in-market), MLB.tv (out of market). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/reds\/fans\/reds-tv?partnerId=redirect-cin-watch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">You can check your zip code here<\/a> and find out who carries the Reds MLB Channel in your area if you are unsure.Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)Forecast: 71\u00b0, cloudy, 70% chance of rainNews and Notes<\/p>\n<p>The ABS Challenge system<\/p>\n<p>There have only been five games played so far this season by the Reds, but they\u2019ve spent those five games challenging balls and strikes more than anyone else in the National League. Only the Yankees hitters have more challenges than the Reds hitters. Not only have both teams challenged plenty of calls, they\u2019ve both been very successful, too. The Reds are 7-for-9 from their hitters. Their catchers are 1-for-2. <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/leaderboard\/abs-challenges?challengeType=batting-team&amp;level=mlb&amp;gameType=regular&amp;year=2026&amp;sort=n_challenges&amp;sortDir=desc&amp;page=0&amp;pageSize=50\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">You can see the full team leaderboards here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Down on the Farm \u2013 Things are going well<\/p>\n<p>Last night the Louisville Bats moved to 4-0 for the first time since 2001. They didn\u2019t get there easily, though. They got a game tying 2-run home run from Edwin Arroyo in the bottom of the 9th before Rece Hinds hit a walk-off home run later in the inning. Over at RedsMinorLeagues.com we covered it all and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redsminorleagues.com\/2026\/03\/31\/cincinnati-reds-minor-league-game-review-march-31-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">have tons of notes from the game<\/a> and about several of the players who played in last night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p>Division StandingsTeamWLGBPlayoff OddsMilwaukee410.052.5%Cincinnati321.020.9%St. Louis321.010.6%Chicago232.048.4%Pittsburgh232.043.5%Playoff Odds via Fangraphs  About The Author<a href=\"https:\/\/www.redlegnation.com\/author\/dougdirt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1843729dc943f8fba78202715ba292f963fb80b10a0f14d5dd55026fb000dfd7.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo\" height=\"120\" width=\"120\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Redleg Nation Staff The Pittsburgh Pirates put a hurting on the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, winning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2402],"tags":[5,4,10,776,64,4297],"class_list":{"0":"post-658066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-pirates","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-pirates","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","13":"tag-pittsburghpirates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116333196209543397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}