Rays vs Pirates: Pitching Showdown

0:00It's April 18th. You're listening to MLB News today, AI-powered baseball coverage. I'm Cory with the story. The Teva Bay rays are heating up fast, dropping a clean sweep on the Yankees at home, then rolling into Chicago to handle the white socks the same way. After two years of just scraping by, they're playing that gritty small ball style again, putting balls in play and frustrating defense as well. Scratching out runs. This six-game run has the league-noticing, their pesky contenders once more in a brutal American league east. Now they're packing up for Pittsburgh to tangle with the surprising pirates, another early hot team riding a deep pitching staff. Game 1 pits Nick Martinez against rookie flamethrower Bubba Chandler. Game 2 sends Drew Rasmussen up versus superstar Paul Schienz and Sunday. Features Shay McClanahan facing veteran Mitch Keller. These match-up screen pitching duel from the jump. Fans are buzzing because the rays' arms are dialed in. Martinez leaning on his deceptive change-up to mess with timing.

1:02Rasmussen owning hitters with. That stingy, one-hit shut-out vibe against New York. And McClanahan mixing sliders and change-ups to cover his fastball lows. It's got that old, rays' magic flowing, defense-tight and momentum-building. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh stacking talent-like crazy. Chandler's 97-mile per hour heat with nasty brick. Schienz as the unbeatable ace-with. Back-to-back, Shay Young Hardware. Keller pounding grounders. Plus phenoms, like 19-year-old shortstop, Connor Griffin locked into a nine-year. $140 million deal. Oh, an X-ray brand-in-lows mashing homers for them now after that salary dump trade. This series' contestive Tampa Surge holds up against Pittsburgh's arsenal, setting the tone for their playoff push win here. And they're right back. In the hunt, carrying that fire through the gauntlet ahead.