After taking two of three from the Boston Red Sox over the weekend and going 4-3 on last week’s road trip, the Pittsburgh Pirates return home this week to face two of the best teams in baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers.
The Dodgers — the defending World Series champs — enter Tuesday’s series opener at PNC Park with a 2.5-game lead over the San Diego Padres in the National League West. While their 78-59 record is impressive, they’re 22-27 over their last 49 games and have a .500 record on the road this year (33-33).
That bodes well for the Pirates, who are 39-30 at home this season and boast one of the top pitching staffs in baseball. In fact, they have the second-lowest home ERA in baseball (2.95) since interim manager Don Kelly replaced Derek Shelton in May.
That trend appears likely to continue this week with Carmen Mlodzinski, Braxton Ashcraft and Paul Skenes lined up to face Los Angeles.
Mlodzinski got off to a slow start this season but has been outstanding since late June, going 2-2 with a 1.56 ERA, a 2.21 FIP and a 0.97 WHIP over his last 40 1/3 innings. He’ll start Tuesday’s series opener against Clayton Kershaw, who went 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA in August and is showing no signs of slowing down at age 37.
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Ashcraft will face the Dodgers for the first time in the middle game. The 25-year-old rookie has been lights-out for Pittsburgh, going 4-2 with a 2.58 ERA, a 2.46 FIP and a 1.15 WHIP in 52 1/3 innings. He’s been even better lately, allowing just three earned runs with a 20:3 K/BB ratio over his last four starts.
He’ll face three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani, who’s been a bit uneven on the mound this year after not pitching at all in 2024. His 4.18 ERA is nearly two runs higher than his 2.26 FIP, and his 44:7 K/BB ratio in 32 1/3 innings remains impressive.
Skenes draws Thursday’s series finale against two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell. Snell’s off to a good start (3-3, 2.41 ERA) for Los Angeles after missing most of the season with injuries, but Skenes leads MLB with a 2.05 ERA and appears headed for his first career National League Cy Young Award.
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With so much talent on the mound, this figures to be a great series. The Dodgers rank third in MLB in scoring (5.11 runs per game) while the Pirates rank last (3.62 runs per game), so Pittsburgh will need to keep Los Angeles’ bats at bay if it wants to continue its success at home.
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Featured image via Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images