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The Reds continue to add players to the injured list and they’ve added Joey Votto, Tyler Naquin and Nick Senzel to the list over the last three days. Winning has been hard enough for the Reds but winning without several starters is even harder.

Reds Record 3-22

Pirates Record 10-14

Pitching Matchups:

Friday 

Connor Overton 1.69 ERA vs JT Brubaker 6.20 ERA

Saturday Game One 

Nick Lodolo 5.52 ERA vs Mitch Keller 5.32 ERA

Saturday Game Two

TBD vs TBD

Sunday 

Tyler Mahle 7.01 ERA vs Zach Thompson 10.05 ERA

What to watch for

How do the starting pitchers perform?

-Connor Overton and Nick Lodolo were absolutely fantastic in their last starts, however this will be Lodolos first start since coming off of the Injured list. Tyler Mahle on the other hand has struggled this year, Sunday against this Pirates lineup will either have fans relieved or extremely worried. 

Is Mike Moustakus back?

-One of the biggest question marks coming into the season was the play of Mike Moustakus. He started off the year embarrassingly bad but after coming off of the injured list he’s been extremely impressive. In his last seven games he has a .391 batting average with a near .500 on base percentage. 

Keys to a series win

-At this point and time there’s only one thing that comes to mind. The Reds have to be a complete team. The Reds offense has provided a glimmer of hope several times this year only for the pitching to erase it. They have scored first in many of the games but somehow never lead when the inning is over. If they ever want to win games they need to be as well rounded as possible 

Series Prediction 

-It’s hard to predict the Reds to really win anything at this rate but this series will be a big test on how bad they really are. The Pirates have been playing decent baseball but they will be the worst team the Reds have played so far. I am comfortable enough to say the Reds will not get swept but I don’t see them winning the series either. I think the Reds and the Pirates end up splitting this series and both teams walk away satisfied.