The Cincinnati Reds head to Pittsburgh on a heater

Can their win streak stretch to 5 games? 6 games? 7 games?!

Paul Skenes is an otherworldly talent on the mound, precisely what fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates have hoped would come along and rescue their franchise.

Skenes is also set to miss facing the Cincinnati Reds for the second time already this season, as his turn in the starting rotation didn’t come up when these two clubs faced off in early April and won’t spin around in time to face Cincinnati this week.

On paper, that should come as a boon for a surging Reds club who has won four straight and just swept aside the Cleveland Guardians over the weekend. Of course, the Reds also had their own ace in Hunter Greene firing 7 scoreless frames on April 13th as the Reds won 4-0 to secure the sweep of the Pirates the first time these clubs played this season, and Greene, of course, is currently sidelined with a groin injury.

Either way, this is a series where the Reds should continue to flex their muscles over their perennially rebuilding NL Central rivals. The Pirates are a dismal 15-32 on the season, just got swept by the Philadelphia Phillies, and have lost five of six (and twelve of sixteen) overall this year.

Their offense’s collective .279 wOBA is tied with the Chicago White Sox for the worst mark in all of baseball, their .322 slugging percentage hands down the lowest among all 30 MLB clubs. They’ve clubbed just 33 dingers - only the Kansas City Royals (30) have fewer - and their .104 ISO is, as you’d expect at this point of the paragraph, the worst in all Major League Baseball.

Cincinnati is missing Pittsburgh’s best starter, and the Pirates offense has been abysmal overall. If that’s not a recipe for putting the screws to a division rival while riding a heater I do not know what is, but that’s clearly the expectation for this Reds club as they once again look to climb out of the 4.5 game hole they’ve put themselves in within the division and chase, in earnest, both the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals this year.

Perhaps the lone problem facing the Reds in this series is that Pittsburgh will be sending a pair of LHPs out as starters. That means the white-hot Will Benson will either a) be on the bench or b) up against his nemeses while trying to prolong his excellent run of form. To date, Reds batters collectively own just a 79 wRC+ against LHP this season (20th overall), so that’s not exactly to their advantage.

Still, these are precisely the kinds of series good clubs must win, which is the same thing that got said when the Reds dropped the series to the White Sox just last week. Hopefully this won’t be a lesson learned post facto.

Pitching Matchups

Monday, May 19th (6:40 PM ET): LHP Nick Lodolo vs. RHP Mitch Keller

Tuesday, May 20th (6:40 PM ET): RHP Nick Martinez vs. LHP Bailey Falter

Wednesday, May 21st (12:35 PM ET): RHP Brady Singer vs. LHP Andrew Heaney

How to Watch

All three of these games will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network. You can watch FDSN in-market through cable packages, though it’s also available to be streamed in-market with no blackout restrictions even without a cable subscription. You can check the link in the above sidebar (which I’ve re-linked right here) for more information on how you can do just that.

Monday’s game between these two clubs will also be carried on FS1, so you can view it there.

Per usual, you can view these games from outside the Reds TV market by catching the FDSN stream through MLB.tv.