Pirates at Reds, Game 1: Preview and Lineups

We’ve seen some decent stuff from Matt Harvey as a member of the Cincinnati Reds so far. In 8.0 IP, he’s not yet walked a batter, with 7 Ks on his ledger in that span. The 3.38 ERA, 3.00 FIP, and 1.00 WHIP all look mighty nice, as do the wins the team has logged in both of his outings.

Of course, both of those starts came away from Great American Ball Park in the relatively cavernous confines of Dodger Stadium and AT&T Park, but tonight he’ll get his first start as a Red while in their home bandbox. It’ll also come against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who come in sporting the 5th best team wOBA and the 7th best SLG% of any MLB squad so far this year, two contributing reasons why they’re a surprising 6 games over .500 to date.

The Pirates will also send their resident ace to the mound tonight in Jameson Taillon, who you may remember from the complete game 1-hit shutout he threw against the Reds back in the dismal, dismal early April days of this season.

First pitch is set for 7:10 PM ET.

Cincinnati Lineup

Pittsburgh Lineup

Other Notes

• Despite being listed on the Reds active roster still, Rosell Herrera appeared in the AAA Louisville game earlier today, so there’s a roster move in the works. Last night, of course, Brandon Dixon was oddly removed in the 3rd inning without injury (and didn’t play for Louisville today), and Michael Lorenzen dropped a hint that he was at CVG on his Instagram story last night, sooo...
• Despite being 0 for 10 over his last 3 games, Adam Duvall is hitting .270/.426/.595 over his last 14 G (47 PA), and that paired with Jesse Winker’s slump is apparently reason enough to keep rolling the soon-to-be 30 year old out there in year 4 of the rebuild. Whatevs.
• Go Reds.