The Blue Jays went 2-4 on their six game homestand against the Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs. Not the results expected against two clubs well out of the playoff race. They will need to take advantage of another weak team in the Pirates over the next three days.

At 70-59 they are currently in the third wild card position, 1.5 games up on the Baltimore Orioles. They trail the Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners by two games in the wild card standings.

The Pittsburgh Pirates come into this series having won just twice in their last ten games. They are 49-81 on the season, second to last in the National League.

Bradley Zimmer and Casey Lawrence have re-joined the team as part of the September roster expansion.

Zimmer will not be in the starting lineup today but both players will be available.

Today marks the 32 year anniversary of Dave Stieb’s no-hitter.

Stieb is the only Blue Jays pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter. Today is as good of day as any to see another. With Alek Manoah on the bump anything is possible.

Acquired as part of the package in the Jose Quintana trade to St. Louis at the deadline, Oviedo will be making his Pirates debut tonight. The 24-year-old right hander was the primary piece in the swap.

He has spent most of this season in triple-A for the two organizations. In 61.1 innings in the minors he has a 4.70 ERA in 15 appearances (14 starts).

While up with the big club in St. Louis this season he appeared in 14 games but made only one start. His MLB ERA in 2022 is 3.20.

After a string of sub-par outings from late July to mid August Manoah has gotten back on track in his last two starts. In 13 combined innings against the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels he has allowed only two earned runs and struck out 16.

Unfortunately the Jays were unable to provide him enough run support to win either game. It has now been nearly a month since his last win versus the Minnesota Twins on August 4^th.

Many questioned if Manoah was falling off due to his heavy workload but he silenced those doubters with the previous two starts. He leads the Jays with 155.2 innings pitched this season.

A first-round pick of the Blue Jays back in 2011, Beede was claimed off waivers from the San Francisco Giants in May.

He recently entered the Pirates rotation. All five of his starts came in August. In 28 appearances this year he has an ERA of 4.88 and a record of 1-4. His last two starts have not gone well. He has allowed a combined ten runs in seven innings.

Ross Stripling will be looking for a bounce back performance on Saturday. On August 28^th versus the Angels he allowed three runs in a game for just the third time this season and gave up two home runs for the first time.

In 26 appearances and 18 starts he is second in the Blue Jays rotation with a 2.94 ERA.

The 22-year-old Contreras looks to be one of the promising young pieces in the Pirates organization. He has split time between the MLB and triple-A this season.

In 15 appearances (12 starts) in the MLB this year he has an ERA of 3.57 and a strike out rate of 8.6 per nine innings. In the minors he has struck out batters at a rate over 12 per nine innings in the last two seasons.

It was another rough outing for Jose Berrios against the Chicago Cubs on August 29^th. He didn’t give up a home run but was hit ten times for four runs in 5.2 innings. The Blue Jays were able to comeback and win in extra innings thanks to four RBI’s from Danny Jansen.

His ERA is now 5.32 on the season. This year has been disastrous for the Jays opening day starter.