Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh: Weekend Baseball Showdown

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00:00All right, so let's dive into this battle this weekend between Cleveland and Pittsburgh,

00:05probably favoring Cleveland in virtually every single category except for Saturday's matchup

00:10with Paul Skeens. Ben Lively and Skeens today in Pittsburgh. Skeens pretty outspoken with

00:15comments this week saying it's time to win. It's time to win for the Pirates. I tend to agree,

00:20but I don't know that they're set up for it. Logan Allen against Mitch Keller on Sunday. Mitch

00:26Keller, you know, an ace in his own right, too. I mean, honestly, he could probably front the

00:29rotation. If Jared Jones was healthy, he probably could front the rotation, too. That's how good

00:33Pittsburgh is, but Tom, it just doesn't appear to be happening for the Pirates. Now, at the end of

00:39the season, are they going to play competitive? Sure. Are they going to win 70-something games?

00:43Yeah, probably, but it's a tough watch for me watching this team. I think I saw they've made

00:50the most base-running errors or mistakes in baseball this season, and it's just not gone their way,

00:55but it is Skeens' day, so of course you're going to have him in there, and what's left to say? He

01:00should win. He should win, and, you know, at a certain point, it comes down to, like, this is

01:05solely to me about the Pirates hitting when it's all said and done, because they have good pitching.

01:10Like, they really do. It's underrated to a certain degree outside of Paul Skeens. I think the rest of

01:14their rotation is a little bit underrated, but if they're not scoring, they beat the Nationals the

01:19other day 1-0. Like, going to the extra innings was the last week, the week before, against the

01:24Cardinals for 13, and you're barely scoring one or two runs, so the pitching will be there in large

01:29part for them, but it's about getting the hitting, and listen, if the game's close and Klaus Hayes

01:34coming out of the bullpen for the Guardians, like, do we have any faith that the Pirates are going to

01:37put an extra run across the board? Probably not, so it's a fun matchup, but it's probably not going

01:42to be an offensive-minded matchup. Yeah, would agree. All right, Cardinals and Mets. Mets win

01:47yesterday. We'll see what happens this weekend. Good pitching matchups for the Mets. They've got a lot of

01:52strikeout guys on the bump. Kodai Stenga will start against Matthew Libertor today, and then on

01:58Sunday, we've got Sonny Gray going against Clay Holmes, who's, you know, honestly been a pretty

02:02intriguing fantasy pitcher this season, Tom, because it seems like every time he's out there, he's just

02:07striking out a bunch of guys and doing what he did out of the bullpen, but the length of Holmes

02:12getting into these games deep has been kind of the question, but I think the Mets are a heavy

02:16favorite this weekend. Yeah, heavy favorite, and they should be, you know, the Clay Holmes

02:22part is interesting because, like you said, I've stayed close over the past few years with the

02:25Yankees, and what we get from him on a start-to-start basis I think should be relatively

02:31consistent, but as you alluded to, it's the length. You know, we get four or five innings

02:36from him. We get eight strikeouts in those five innings, but we're not going to see him go past

02:40that. We're not going to see him maybe be in a spot to pick up a win or pick up a QS, whatever it

02:43might be, and, you know, the Cardinals offense got off to a super hot start. I think they were a good

02:48team. They may not be great, but the top portion of that lineup, they're putting the ball in play,

02:52and I think that would be more of an issue for Holmes rather than Senga, and obviously

02:56Sonny Gray is great on the other side. It's probably an underrated matchup when it's all

03:01said and done, but it's certainly not the one to tune into if you had to pick one this weekend.

03:05All right, we've got the great matchup this weekend with the Dodgers and Rangers. It'll be

03:10interesting to see how Roki Sasaki does. It feels like Sasaki is having Yamamoto's April from last year,

03:15up and down, in and out against Uvalde. That's today, and then Glass now more consistent. By

03:20the way, Tyler Molle has been fantastic for Texas. I did not see that coming.

03:25Yeah, I did not see that coming, and listen, he pitched, what, fewer than 20 innings in each of

03:30the past two seasons dealing with injuries, so just simply him being out there, it's great to see him

03:34be healthy and be out there. The fact that we've seen him be out there and be great, that's a great

03:39spot to see, and probably a player that went undrafted in a lot of leagues, probably still pick him up,

03:43still stream him. I wouldn't say stream him against the Dodgers, but just in general,

03:47with him out there, we know they need some help in the rotation. Lighter's still working his way

03:51back. They had to bring up Pat Corbin, but this is the series to watch this weekend. I think this

03:56is potentially a World Series preview. Sasaki needs to find that consistency. He's striking out

04:02hitters with the one pitch, but if he's not having that one pitch, the walks are an issue with him,

04:06so getting it there, and Evaldi is like, is he just like the most consistent veteran pitch that we

04:11possibly have? Goes undrafted in leagues, and is just so, so good. We've got the matchup with the

04:18Padres and Astros set to go off later today. Michael King and Dylan Cease are the starters

04:23this weekend. Wow, for San Diego. Those are some good starters there. Hunter Wesneski starts for

04:28Houston, and then Frambois Valdez on the mound on Sunday. You talked about a World Series preview.

04:33I don't know that this is one of them, but a really good matchup both games.

04:36Yeah, really good matchup nonetheless. I think the Padres bounce back. We talked about King in the

04:40Cy Young section. He's awesome. Cease is awesome. He shaved the beard. He's looking good. The

04:44strikeouts will be there for him. He's got to keep a portion of that Astros, that top portion

04:48of the lineup, under control, and I think Cease will be in for another good start. Not too many walks

04:52from him, hopefully.

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