Cincinnati Reds vs Pittsburgh Pirates – August 20, 2022

After a comeback win on Friday night the Pittsburgh Pirates will look for a win tonight over Cincinnati to guarantee a series win. The Reds will look to grab a win behind Justin Dunn as he makes his third start of the season in the big leagues. The Pirates will send Tyler Beede to the mound with first pitch set for 7:05pm ET.

Starting Lineups

Here are the lineups for this tonight’s game:

Donovan Solano is active today and jumps right back into the lineup as the designated hitter.

Starting Pitchers

Justin Dunn

It’s been a rough 13 months for Justin Dunn, who missed much of that time with a shoulder injury. Since returning he’s struggled in a big way in both the minors and majors. He’s made just two starts for the Reds this season and he had eight in the minors – some on rehab and some after he was completed with his rehab and was then optioned.

Left-handed hitters have absolutely crushed him this season between the two levels. He’s walked them at an incredibly high rate, rarely missed bats, and they are hitting.343/.489/.562 against him. Basically Ted Williams with a little less power. Right-handed hitters haven’t been nearly that good against him, and he’s not walking them at all, but they are still doing plenty of damage with a .273 average and a .558 slugging percentage.

Splits (MiLB & MLB in 2022)

Pitch Usage

Tyler Beede

Must of the time on the mound this season for Tyler Beede has come out of the bullpen. The righty has made three starts – all for the Pirates – and 23 relief appearances between the Pirates and Giants this season. He’s upped his groundball rate with Pittsburgh to a career high 50%, which is well above-average.

As you would expect with a groundball pitcher, teams don’t hit for much power against against him with both lefties and righties slugging under .390. Both lefties and righties make a lot of contact against him, and they will walk at a solid clip against him, too.

Splits

Pitch Usage

When and Where

• Game time: 7:05pm ET
• Where: PNC Park
• Watch: Bally Sports Ohio, MLB.tv (out of market)
• Listen: 700 WLW AM (Cincinnati area)
• Forecast: 82°, cloudy, 10% chance of rain

News and Notes

Roster Moves Everywhere

The Reds activated both Donovan Solano (paternity/restricted list) and Buck Farmer (bereavement) this afternoon. They also optioned T.J. Zeuch back to Triple-A Louisville and placed Albert Almora Jr. on the 10-day injured list.

Luis Cessa to join the starting rotation

With T.J. Zeuch heading back to the minor leagues a spot in the rotation is now going to be going to Luis Cessa. He’s only started once since 2018 ended and it was earlier this season when he was used as an opener.