The Pittsburgh Pirates will attempt to win back-to-back games for the first time this season when they host the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night to open a three-game series.
Wins have been scarce for the Pirates, who are coming off their biggest victory of the young season — 5-4 in 11 innings over the New York Yankees on Sunday.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, will look to course-correct after being swept in a three-game series at Boston, including a doubleheader on Sunday. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Cardinals lost 18-7 and allowed 22 hits.
Pittsburgh saw its bullpen relinquish a 4-1 lead to the Yankees in the ninth inning of Sunday’s series finale. The Pirates squandered a quality start from Andrew Heaney for the second time this season but prevailed in extras on Tommy Pham’s game-winning single.
Right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski (0-1, 9.82 ERA), who had been used primarily as a reliever during his first two major league seasons, appeared in five games over the past two seasons as an opener.
Mlodzinski earned the final spot in the Pirates’ rotation out of spring training. The team’s first-round draft pick in 2020 will look for better results than he had in his first outing of the season last Monday in Tampa.
Mlodzinski started strong, tossing three scoreless innings. He then gave up five hits and a walk in the fourth inning, allowing Tampa Bay four runs in a 6-1 loss.
“The confidence I am going to take away is that those first three innings were solid,” Mlodzinski said after the defeat. “I felt like I executed what I wanted to do. The side that (stinks) is the fourth inning.”
Mlodzinski is 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA in seven relief appearances versus the Cardinals.
He will oppose left-hander Matthew Liberatore (0-0, 4.50), who pitched six innings in his season debut last Tuesday in a 9-7, 11-inning loss to the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up three earned runs on six hits but issued no walks and struck out four.
Liberatore, who hopes to solidify a spot in the Cardinals’ rotation this season, will try to give the team some length after St. Louis used eight different relievers over the course of Sunday’s doubleheader.
Liberatore threw only 77 pitches during his six innings and gave up all three runs during a rough third inning.
“(My velocity) dipped a little bit in that third inning, and then I was able to re-set and re-focus and find more feel in the final three innings there,” Liberatore said after his first start. “Obviously, I don’t want it to dip like that. It is what it is, but I was able to regroup and go back after guys.”
All six of the hits he gave up came against right-handed batters, something that’s been a problem for Liberatore since he made his major league debut in 2022. For his career, right-handed batters are hitting .293 against Liberatore while he’s held lefties to a .216 average.
Liberatore is 1-2 with a 6.33 ERA in 21 1/3 career innings against the Pirates, which includes four starts, and is 0-2 with an 8.79 ERA in 14 1/3 innings at PNC Park.
