Pirates series preview: A poor offense, but a chance to see some former Royals

An offense just as bad as the Royals comes to town

The Pittsburgh Pirates come to Kansas City after getting swept in Seattle, a series where they didn’t score a single run. In fact, coming into Monday night’s contest, the Pirates will be touting a 28-inning scoreless streak.

Overall, on the season, Pittsburgh is 38-53 on the season, last in the NL Central. While they do have a great young starter, Paul Skenes, he pitched on Sunday in Seattle, so that’s two years in a row now that the Royals don’t have to face him.

The Pirates finished up 76-86 last season and fired their manager Derek Shelton earlier this season after starting 12-26. They promoted bench coach, Don Kelly and have been about .500 since then. The Pirates are an atrocious 12-32 on the road this season.

The Pirates offense is only better than the Royals this season, they have scored just 6 more runs than Kansas City this season. They average 3.41 runs per game (29th) to the Royals 3.34 (30th). The Pirates are second to last in doubles as a team this season, at 118, a stat the Royals are 5th in across the whole league. The Pirates have hit the least number of homers this season (61), the Royals are 29th at 63.

The Pirates are middle of the pack when it comes to getting on base via the walk, while the Royals are dead last. The Pirates however, are 5th in the league in strikeouts, so the Royals pitchers should miss a lot of bats this series. The Pirates are just ahead of the Royals in stolen bases.

On the pitching side of things, the Pirates are 7th in team ERA, behind the Royals who slot in at 4th. The bullpen for Pittsburgh is where they are a little shaky, as they have converted just 18 of 33 save opportunities. The Pirates pitching staff has given up the second least amount of homers on the season. The Pirates pitching staff is one of the worst in strikeouts, so they pitch to a lot of contact.

The Pirates have two former Royals from last season on their team, Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier, both of whom have been decent this season. Pham is hitting .237 with just 2 homers. Frazier is hitting .255 with 3 homers on the season. Young player and the once highly touted O’Neil Cruz is hitting a measly .203 on the year, and his defense in center and effort has been questionable at times this season.

Pitching Matchups:

Monday 6:40 p.m. LHP Andrew Heaney (4-7, 4.16 ERA) vs LHP Noah Cameron (2-4, 2.56 ERA)

Tuesday 6:40 p.m. RHP Mitch Keller (3-10, 3.64 ERA) vs Seth Lugo (6-5, 2.65 ERA)

Wednesday 6:40 p.m. LHP Bailey Falter (6-4, 3.69 ERA) vs LHP Kris Bubic (7-6, 2.36 ERA)