Reds at Pirates, Game 1 - Preview and Lineups

Tonight, the Reds travel to Pittsburgh to begin their final series of the season. It’s weird; even though the Reds season has effectively been over for a while now, thinking about there being only one final series to the 2019 season is strange. It’s both overdue and way too soon.

I guess the good news is that the regular season slog is just about over, which opens really interesting playoff baseball in October.

For the sixth season in a row, it just won’t include the Reds.

Tonight, Anthony DeSclafani makes the final start of what’s been a really good season. Finally healthy for the duration, Disco has been on a tear to end this campaign. He’ll be entering his final year of team control in 2020, so the Reds will have an interesting decision to make on the right hander this winter.

Steven Brault will take the mound for the Pirates. He’s scuffling to end the season, as his ERA has ballooned to 5.07 on the season after three rough outings (12.83 over 13.1 IP). He held the Reds scoreless in 5.1 innings all the way back in May.

The Reds aren’t exactly sending out the A-Team for this Brault start, either.

Reds lineup

Pirates lineup