{"id":28890,"date":"2026-04-27T21:57:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=28890"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:57:28","slug":"with-cardinals-in-town-pirates-eye-a-different-bounceback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/?p=28890","title":{"rendered":"With Cardinals in town, Pirates eye a different bounceback"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Pirates are more equipped than ever to bounce back from an ugly loss Sunday in Milwaukee, where they had just two hits and amassed 18 strikeouts.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As players entered the home clubhouse at PNC Park, they saw an inflatable bounce house, this season\u2019s latest prank. Paul Skenes joked Friday he and Jake Mangum thought about doing it to celebrate Konnor Griffin\u2019s 20th birthday \u2014 then they actually followed through.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cMakes for a fun clubhouse,\u201d Griffin said, shaking his head.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cFirst time I\u2019ve seen that,\u201d Bryan Reynolds added.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI love it,\u201d Pirates manager Don Kelly said. \u201cIt\u2019s good camaraderie, and I know Konnor\u2019s a great sport about it.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But come 6:40 p.m., for the start of a four-game series against a division rival, the only bouncing should involve the Pirates\u2019 bats.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dustin May will start for the Cardinals, which should provide a golden opportunity. The right-hander is 3-2 with a 5.84 ERA through five starts this season, allowing a .337 batting average against.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As a team, St. Louis has lost four in a row, with a team ERA of 4.87 (27th).\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s a great time for the Pirates (16-12) to further a storyline of the first month, where they haven\u2019t lost back-to-back games since March 26 and March 28 in New York.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen it doesn\u2019t click one night, we\u2019ve been able to put it behind us and show up the next day prepared, work the same and compete at a high level,\u201d Kelly said in his office pregame.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Someone to watch on the Pirates side tonight is Marcell Ozuna, who’s five for eight in his career against May, with a double and a home run. As a team, the Pirates are hitting .455 against May, who doesn\u2019t walk many (just five in 24 2\/3 innings) but is tied for most hits allowed in MLB with 33.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On the flip side, Wilber Dotel has a terrific opportunity for the Pirates. Mason Montgomery will start, but it\u2019s as an opener; two of the first three St. Louis hitters are lefties. Dotel will have the runway to pitch for a little bit, if he\u2019s able to get outs.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dotel worked only 14 1\/3 innings at Triple-A Indianapolis this season, but his four-seam fastball averages 97.1 and he has solid complementary stuff, as well. In Double-A last season, Dotel led all Pirates Minor Leaguers with 131 strikeouts.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cSeeing and hearing from the development staff, the guy is our hardest worker in the Minor League system,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe continues to get better, continues to work on things. We think there’s a really high ceiling.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dotel has pitched twice for the Pirates this season, allowing an earned run in 2 2\/3 innings. They\u2019ve had a need for middle-relief help, and Dotel can give the Pirates what they want to see with strong work in a bulk role tonight.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Jared Triolo was in the Pirates clubhouse and around the team for a day, as his rehab assignment will be transferred to Double-A Altoona.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He\u2019s working back from a right knee patellar tendon injury that occurred during the home opener and appeared in two games with Low-A Bradenton, going hitless in five at-bats with a walk, a stolen base and a run scored.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Triolo said he \u201cprogressed pretty quickly\u201d and added that he has confidence and full range of movement with his knee. He\u2019s played five and seven innings so far. The next steps will be playing full games and on consecutive days before he rejoins the big club.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Everything feels good,\u201d Triolo said. \u201cDefense and swing feel good. Running feels good.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cTalking with some of those guys down there, they asked me a bunch of questions. \u2026 The clubhouse ehre feels lively. Good to see everyone again.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He\u2019s not a Pirate, but it\u2019ll still be cool to see JJ Wetherholt at PNC Park. The Mars and West Virginia product will start at second base and hit leadoff for the Cardinals, his first game here as a big leaguer.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In his first MLB season, Wetherholt is batting .238 with a .769 OPS in 27 games, with five home runs, 13 RBIs and 15 walks against 23 strikeouts.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Selected seventh overall in 2024, two spots ahead of Griffin, Wetherholt finds himself on the periphery of the National League Rookie of the Year discussion after the season\u2019s first month.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe career that he had at Mars and West Virginia, then to be up with the Cardinals, really cool story,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe\u2019s a really good hitter.\u201d\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Wetherholt is only 23 and has a ton of potential. We already have Ian Happ, David Bednar, Mason Miller, Cole Young and a few others. Wetherholt will further the cause of trying to put WPIAL baseball on the map.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s just really cool how strong baseball is in Western Pennsylvania,\u201d Kelly said.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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The Pirates are more equipped than ever to bounce back from an ugly loss Sunday in Milwaukee, where they had just two hits and amassed 18 strikeouts. As players entered the home clubhouse at PNC Park, they saw an inflatable bounce house, this season\u2019s latest prank. Paul Skenes joked Friday he and Jake Mangum thought … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/With-Cardinals-in-town-Pirates-eye-a-different-bounceback.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28892,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28890\/revisions\/28892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}