Pirates-Reds PPD Friday; twin bill July 7

May 6th, 2022

CINCINNATI -- Friday's Pirates-Reds game at Great American Ball Park has been postponed due to rain and rescheduled as part of a split doubleheader on Thursday, July 7.

Game 1 on July 7 -- the rescheduled game from Friday night -- will begin at 2:10 p.m. ET. The nightcap on July 7 -- that day's originally scheduled game -- will begin at 7:10 p.m., shifting back from a regularly scheduled 6:40 p.m. start. Both games of the split doubleheader will be nine-inning regulation games.

With another doubleheader already slated for Saturday, Cincinnati adjusted its rotation to have Friday's scheduled pitcher, Connor Overton, start Game 1 and the recently-added Robert Dugger pitch in Game 2.

Nick Lodolo was originally expected to be activated from the 10-day injured list and pitch Game 1 for the Reds. The club did not reveal a reason for not starting Lodolo.

On the Pirates end, JT Brubaker will be pushed back from Friday’s start and start the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Mitch Keller will pitch the second game of the doubleheader. Zach Thompson will start on Sunday, as originally planned.

This marks the third game for Pittsburgh that has been postponed due to rain. The Pirates’ fourth game of the season against the Cardinals was rained out and changed to a doubleheader on June 14th. Just this past week, Tuesday’s game against the Tigers in Detroit was postponed and changed to a doubleheader on Wednesday. Prior to Friday’s postponement, manager Derek Shelton discussed the challenges of having games postponed.

“I would rather play, because when you don’t play, you’re talking about adding games in stretches where you don’t know where you’re going to be at,” Shelton said. “In terms of how we’re running our pitching, it’s way easier to do it this way. But I would prefer not to do it.”