Jack Suwinski has shown impressive power during his young major league career for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 24-year-old Chicago native has been especially tough against his hometown Cubs.
Looking to continue his latest home-run surge on Wednesday night, Suwinski will try to help the National League Central-leading Pirates bounce back from losing the series opener to the host Cubs.
Suwinski hit two solo homers on Tuesday, among the few highlights for Pittsburgh during an ugly 11-3 loss at Chicago. The Pirates fell to 2-4 following a six-game winning streak.
Suwinski, who attended high school eight miles west of Wrigley Field, has a team-leading 15 home runs after recording his fifth career multi-homer contest Tuesday. In 162 career major league games, Suwinski has gone deep 34 times, and he has four homers in his past four games.
“For everyone on the outside, they see really big home runs. For us in the clubhouse, we see a lot of work behind the scenes, and it’s impressive,” teammate Connor Joe told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Suwinski, who has a .924 OPS despite batting .253 with 66 strikeouts this season.
“Jack is diligent about his work. … Happy for him. Love to see him succeed and help the team.”
Suwinski has five home runs in 12 career games against Chicago, including one off Wednesday’s scheduled Cubs starter, Drew Smyly (5-4, 3.27 ERA).
The left-hander has lost his past three starts, pitching to a 5.51 ERA during that stretch. However, his teammates scored a total of six runs in those contests.
Smyly also has yielded seven hits in each of the last three outings, most recently giving up three runs, two earned, while walking three through six innings during a 3-1 road defeat against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.
He is 2-3 with a 4.60 ERA in nine career appearances (eight starts) vs. Pittsburgh. Bryan Reynolds and Andrew McCutchen have each homered twice against Smyly during their careers. Meanwhile, fellow Pirates Carlos Santana and Ke’Bryan Hayes are a combined 9-for-30 (.300) with four doubles against him.
With injuries having depleted Pittsburgh’s rotation, Osvaldo Bido is slated to make his major league debut on Wednesday. The 27-year-old right-hander went 3-4 with a 4.55 ERA in 12 appearances, 10 starts, for Triple-A Indianapolis this season.
He will face a Chicago club that has won three of four after losing four in a row. However, it’s uncertain if he will square off against Pittsburgh native Ian Happ, who clubbed his first homer since May 5, a three-run drive, and had four RBIs on Tuesday.
Happ is a career .317 hitter with 15 home runs and 47 RBIs in 83 games against the Pirates, but he exited in the eighth inning Tuesday due to calf tightness.
“We’ll see what the doctors say,” Chicago manager David Ross said of Happ. “(His calf) is a little tight. We’ll see how he feels (Wednesday).”
Bido likely will have to deal with Chicago outfielder Mike Tauchman, who had two hits Tuesday and is batting .387 in 10 home games since debuting with the club on May 19.
–Field Level Media
