The Colorado Rockies (28-47) had the day off Thursday after an uneven road trip that took them from Las Vegas to Wrigley Field. They dropped two of three to the Athletics, with the lone win coming in a wild 23-9 game, then went to Chicago and again lost two of three.
Pittsburg, PA
Colorado Rockies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game discussion: Bubba Chandler vs. Kyle Freeland
That leaves the Rockies at 6-9 in June with a -7 run differential. Even that number is softened by the 23-run outburst against the Athletics. Colorado has been pesky and more competitive, which is an improvement from last month, but the results are still the results: they enter tonight with the worst record in baseball — if only by a game.
Cole Carrigg has brought energy since arriving, and Sterlin Thompson is coming off a two-homer game at Wrigley. There are plenty of reasons to keep watching. The problem is that the old bad-team tropes are still there: blown leads, rocked starters, missed chances, defensive mistakes, and poor execution. The Rockies have been in more games, but they are still too often finding ways to let winnable games get away.
Now they get the Pirates at home.
The Pittsburgh Pirates (38-37) arrive at Coors Field in fourth place in the competitive NL Central — and only 1.5 games out of a wild card spot. Pittsburgh gets plenty of attention for its hyped rotation, led by Paul Skenes, but the offense has been much improved. The Pirates rank third in MLB in batting average, third in on-base percentage, fourth in OPS, fifth in runs scored, and sixth in stolen bases.
Kyle Freeland takes the mound to open the homestand for the Rox. The left-hander enters at 1-7 with a 7.98 ERA, 49 strikeouts, and a 1.70 WHIP over 58.2 innings.
The fastball has been the biggest issue. Freeland is leaving too many four-seamers over the middle of the plate, and hitters have punished it. Opponents are slugging .794 against the pitch, which is especially damaging because he still throws it roughly 27-29% of the time.
That continued in his last start, when Freeland allowed six runs on 10 hits over 5.2 innings. He gave up 12 hard-hit balls, with both the cutter and four-seamer taking damage. The cutter was his most-used pitch in that outing, but it did not solve the contact problem. His sweeper has been his best pitch, holding hitters to a .171 batting average and .371 slugging percentage with a 32.8% whiff rate.
The Rockies do not need Freeland to be perfect tonight, but they need him to avoid the middle-middle mistakes that have turned innings quickly this season.
Pittsburgh will counter with Bubba Chandler, a 23-year-old right-hander who enters at 2-7 with a 4.76 ERA, 68 strikeouts, and a 1.38 WHIP over 68.0 innings.
The record is not pretty, but the stuff is real. Chandler averages 98.5 mph with his four-seam fastball and topped out over 101 mph in his last start. He has used the fastball nearly half the time this season, pairing it most often with a changeup and slider.
The slider has been his best bat-missing pitch, generating a 37.9% whiff rate on the season. The changeup has also been effective, holding hitters to a .186 batting average and .288 slugging percentage. Chandler has walked 43 batters, so the Rockies’ best chance may be making him work instead of chasing their way out of innings.
Kyle Karros has been swinging it well lately, hitting .370/.442/.565 over his last 15 games and raising his season wRC+ to 90. Willi Castro has two home runs, nine RBI, and a .680 slugging percentage over his last seven games, while T.J. Rumfield is hitting .321 with a .750 slugging percentage and two home runs in his last seven games.
For Pittsburgh, Bryan Reynolds has been especially hot, hitting .414/.469/.828 with three home runs over his last seven games. Brandon Lowe leads the team with 18 home runs and 49 RBI while slugging .511, and Endy Rodríguez has played well from behind the plate while posting a 149 wRC+ in 76 plate appearances since returning to the lineup in mid-May.
For Colorado, the task is straightforward: get a steadier start from Freeland, make Chandler throw strikes, and turn the recent flashes from the lineup into enough sustained pressure to win a winnable game.
First Pitch: 6:40 p.m. MDT
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150
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A motorcyclist has died following a crash in North Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County.
Charles McCutcheon, 59, of Jeannette, was traveling west on Lincoln Highway when his motorcycle collided with a Kia sedan traveling east and attempting to turn into a local business, according to a public information report from Westmoreland County Coroner John Ackerman.
The crash, reported around 11:30 a.m. Saturday at 12259 Lincoln Highway, was described as a head-on collision. McCutcheon was pronounced dead approximately one hour later.
McCutcheon’s cause and manner of death are pending toxicology results, the coroner’s office said.
North Huntingdon Township police were handling the investigation.
Pittsburg, PA
Game Discussion (Let’s Try This Again): Milwaukee Brewers (59-34) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (47-47)
The Brewers were rained out last night! I hope you’ll forgive that instead of rewriting an entire new game discussion, I’m just going to (mostly) copy and paste what I wrote before yesterday’s game, because both teams are using the same lineups they announced last night.
However, there are two new pieces of information today. The first is minor, and that’s that Garrett Stallings has been spotted in Pittsburgh and is presumably the 27th man for today’s doubleheader (he should be available in the nightcap). The second is more troubling: Kyle Harrison has been placed on the 15-day injured list with forearm tightness, with Robert Gasser getting recalled to replace him on the roster.
Harrison himself has reiterated what he said a couple of days ago: that he’s not too worried. Plus, a 15-day stint on the IL right now isn’t the worst thing in the world — 15 days from July 9 means he could be eligible to return after missing only six games on the other side of the All-Star break, and he wasn’t going to pitch this weekend anyway. It sounds like the Brewers already had some sort of plan in this respect:
Hopefully, this is just a precautionary short stint for Harrison. The Brewers have proved remarkably flexible when it comes to replacing their injured starters this season, but if Harrison is lost for a longer period, it would be a real blow.
In any case, today’s game starts at 11:05 a.m., and we’ll see you for some morning baseball! The rest of the preview, as written last night, is below.
It’s the start of the last series before the All-Star break (weather permitting) and the Brewers are in Pittsburgh to wrap things up with a three-game set with the Pirates. Brandon Sproat takes the mound for the Brewers, while first-time All-Star Braxton Ashcraft will pitch for the Pirates.
Before we get to tonight’s starters, we’ve got a transaction to tell you about. Since time is, as they say, a flat circle, the Brewers have signed Bryse Wilson to a major league deal. To make room for him, they’ve sent Drew Rom to Triple-A Nashville and they’ve designated Easton McGee for assignment.
Wilson pitched for the Brewers in 2023 and 2024, serving mostly as a long-relief, semi-mop-up option. In 2023 he had quite a nice year: in 53 outings, Wilson pitched to a 2.58 ERA and went 6-0. He struggled more in 2024, but he pitched over 100 innings in a swingman role and was slightly above league average via ERA+. However, in both seasons, Wilson vastly outperformed his peripheral numbers, and since leaving the Brewers, things have been a struggle. He made 20 appearances for the White Sox in 2025 and had a 6.65 ERA in 47 1/3 innings; in three big-league appearances in 2026 (two with the Cubs, one with the Phillies), he’s allowed seven runs, all earned, in 9 2/3 innings. Wilson’s role with the Brewers, for however long it lasts (likely not long), will surely be similar to what it was when he last pitched for them in 2024: mop-up duty. (For those who are optimists, Wilson is generally good at not walking guys, but he doesn’t really strike them out, either, and over the last couple of seasons he has been eminently hittable, with about 12.5 hits per nine innings.)
Back to tonight’s action. Sproat will look to get into the break on a high note. Sproat’s last outing was a mixture of good and bad: he was not pitching well, needed 92 pitches, and allowed eight baserunners to get through just four innings pitched. But the good news is that he was mostly able to work his way out of trouble, too, and he somehow allowed just one run in those four innings, a game which Milwaukee eventually won 3-2 against the Diamondbacks. It was an encouraging sign of maturation that he didn’t just implode when things weren’t going well. Since the beginning of June, Sproat has a very solid 3.30 ERA in 30 innings pitched, and the team is 5-1 in his starts, a stark contrast to his 6.24 ERA and 5-6 team record prior to last month.
Ashcraft has been quite good for Pittsburgh, as evidenced by his status as an All-Star injury replacement. He’s just 26 and in his second season, and he’s done nothing but pitch well since his debut in late May of last season. This year, Ashcraft is 9-3 with a 3.24 ERA (134 ERA+) and even better 3.16 FIP. He’s got sterling peripherals (10.1 K/9, 2.1 BB/9) and is a hard thrower who plays a curveball and sinker off a four-seamer that sits around 97 mph. The curveball, especially, is one of the better ones in the league.
The Brewers continue to rotate through their position players as they reach the end of this 18-games-in-17-days stretch. Christian Yelich is back in the leadoff spot, while the outfield goes Luis Lara, Garrett Mitchell, and Sal Frelick from left to right. William Contreras is behind the plate, while the infield is Joey Ortiz, Cooper Pratt, Brice Turang, and Jake Bauers.
After last night’s rainout, first pitch has been scheduled for 11:05 a.m. CT, with game two coming either at 3:05 p.m. or one hour after the end of game one, if that’s later than 3:05.
An oversized poster board tracks the deep cleaning happening across Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood. All of the yellow highlights denote the streets already adopted.
“We got all the streets on Grandview [Avenue] and we’re still working on a few on Duquesne.”
It’s the brain of Helen Oldfield, who told KDKA-TV that her recent move from the West Coast left something to be desired at first.
“I was very depressed and shocked by the amount of dirt and litter everywhere,” said Oldfield, creator of the Adopt-A-Block program.
She started volunteering for the large cleanups along Grandview Avenue and loved seeing people rappel down the sides to collect the accumulated trash.
“It’s the iconic street in Pittsburgh. It needs to be clean and look nice, but what about the rest of Mount Washington? When people wandered back through the streets, it was just horrible; it was a mess,” Oldfield said.
It was from that idea that Oldfield’s Adopt-a-Block program was born. Now she’s more than 60 volunteers deep and trying not to just clean but shift attitudes.
“I think a lot of the mess that accumulates up here on Grandview, unfortunately, is due to groups of young people collecting in the evening and just hanging out,” she said. “And it’s a cool place to hang out, so why not? They come with their motorbikes, and they come with their fast cars, and they drink, and they eat fast food, and then they chuck it all over the edge. I don’t believe the trash is due to any local residents or any visitors or sightseers.”
Volunteers Barbara and Paul Franklin say this is part of their life now.
“We’ve been here about a year, and we moved back to Pittsburgh after being away for 37 years, and we noticed there’s just a lot of trash out there,” Paul Franklin said.
The couple is now donning yellow safety vests, using an embroidery hoop to keep the trash bags open, and using grabbers to snag cigarette butts, cans, and even gum wrappers.
“When we do McCardle Roadway on Sunday mornings, I feel really good about that,” Barbara Franklin said.
The volunteers keep on coming, snapping pictures of themselves getting their steps in and making a difference, block by block.
“There is still a long way to go, and we are getting there, and I feel the motivation going here,” said Oldfield.
The Franklins told KDKA-TV that it’s addicting, and now they notice trash everywhere. They hope people will see this story and spread it beyond Mt. Washington.
“We’re proud of this city, we’re proud of this neighborhood, and we want to show it in its best light, and we think we’re helping to do that,” said Paul Franklin.
Oldfield said she hopes to secure some funding to continue supplying her volunteers with much-needed gear. She’s currently receiving some money from the community organization Neighbors on the Mount to purchase the vests and grabbers.
She’s soon applying for grant money in the form of a Neighborhood Economic Development grant and told KDKA-TV that she hopes the city will consider her group for the funds to keep this going.
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