Pittsburgh Pirates at Cincinnati Reds 3/28/19 MLB Pick
The Pirates are going to face the revamped Reds on opening day. However, the Pirates are going to be coming in after finishing out their spring training on the year with a win over the Astros. The downside is the Astros mainly had a lot of their incoming talent playing to do the final evaluation and rest the starters before the regular season. The Reds are coming in and hoping the revamped lineup will pay off and the close of spring training is not a sign of things to come. The Reds finished spring training on a 7 game losing skid and did not look impressive pitching wise in the last 2 games, which cost the Reds last season as well.
Pittsburgh Pirates Preview
The Pirates are heading into this game with a decent lineup, but it really hinges on if Gregory Polanco is able to bounce back from his shoulder injury easily or if he has some struggles on the year and in Spring training he was still fairly limited in what he was able to do. Adam Frazier is coming back as well and he did have a decent game against the Astros as he went 1-2 from the plate.
Jameson Taillon is the projected starter for the Pirates in this game. Taillon has started in 75 games in his career and has a 3.63 ERA so far. He has struck out a total of 389 batters and walked only 109 batters. Taillon has posted a 27-21 career record.
Cincinnati Reds Preview
The Reds are coming into this game already with people on the injury list. The worst part is Scooter Gennett is the player who landed on the injured list. That means the Reds are starting the season off without Scooter who played a large role in the offensive production of the team as he hit 310, with 23 homers and 92 runs driven in. Alex Blandino is listed as the second depth chart for most of the infield and could be seen as the replacement for Gennett for a little bit. The downside is Blandino is a career .234 hitter and only has a single homer, but he has only managed to get 128 at bats.
Luis Castillo is the projected opening day starter for the Reds this year. Castillo ended up on his career getting 46 stars on the season. He has posted a 3.89 ERA on the year so far, but has struck out a total of 263 batters on the season. He has managed to get a 13-19 record, but he has missed out on a lot of the run support that a lot of the other pitchers have had in their careers.
Pirates at Reds Line: Cincinnati Reds -130 O/U
My Free MLB Pick:Pittsburgh Pirates +107
The loss of Gennett is definitely going to hurt the Reds offense to start the season off. Yes, the Reds did add in some players this year that are supposed to help the team out, but really the pitching was a sore spot last year and the Reds did not do enough in the off season to shore up the mound. The Pirates are almost equal in missing talent when they may not have Polanco back to start the year, but when you compare Castillo and Taillon head to head these two are going to have a great game. The problem for the Reds is Taillon is the better pitcher and that will definitely tip the game to the Pirates here to win opening day in Cincinnati. Final Score, Pittsburgh Pirates win 4-2.
