The Pittsburgh Pirates will spend their final home Saturday night of the season with a lineup that looks as much like a preview as a game plan.
With playoff hopes already gone, the focus at PNC Park shifts even more sharply toward what the Pirates might be building next. The most notable tweak is at first base, where regular starter Spencer Horwitz is getting the night off. Ryan O'Hearn slides over from his usual right field spot to handle first.
Konnor Griffin leads things off after a four-hit night Friday, and the top of the order keeps leaning into the younger core the Pirates want to evaluate. Oneil Cruz is in the designated hitter spot, bringing his power back to the middle of the lineup. Bryan Reynolds continues to do what he has done all season, staying in left field and extending his streak of appearing in every game this year.
Rafael Flores Jr. is behind the plate and hitting fourth, another sign of the club’s interest in letting its young catcher keep growing into the role. Brandon Lowe bats fifth at second base, giving the order another left-handed bat with pop. Nick Gonzales is at third base and remains among the league leaders in batting average.
The rest of the defense has a similar feel. O'Hearn fills in at first. Ronny Simon is in right field, while Jake Mangum gets the start in center thanks to the contact, speed and defensive value that have earned him more work in the season’s final stretch.
On the mound, the Pirates are giving the ball to Bubba Chandler, the 23-year-old right-hander who remains one of the organization’s top pitching prospects. His rookie year line - 8-9 with a 4.28 ERA and 132 strikeouts - does not jump off the page, but the second half has shown signs of things clicking more cleanly for him. For Pittsburgh, every outing is another look at what could matter in 2027.
Kansas City sends Noah Cameron to the mound, and he arrives with better numbers than the Royals’ record might suggest. The Royals are 67-87 and last in the AL Central, but Cameron has been one of their better stories.
He is 9-8 with a 3.84 ERA, though that number hides an uneven start that once pushed his ERA to 5.27. Over his last nine starts, he has posted a 1.66 ERA, backed by a strong strikeout-to-walk ratio and heavier use of his slider.
First pitch is set for 6:40, and with it comes the Pirates’ final Saturday night home game of the year. The results still matter, but the larger picture is impossible to miss: this is about showing fans a glimpse of what might be coming next for a team that has now missed the playoffs for 11 straight seasons.
In Other News...
Why The Pirates Fell Short Is About To Start A Fight
The Pirates postseason hopes ended when the Padres beat the Marlins, locking Pittsburgh out of the playoff picture and leaving the club to settle for a .500 finish. It was a frustrating way to close a season that once looked more promising, especially after an early burst from the offense gave the team a real foothold in the NL wild card race.
Now comes the harder conversation about why it slipped away. The bullpen never settled in, injuries thinned out key bats, and Paul Skenes did not sustain the level that made him such a centerpiece of the years expectations. There will be plenty of debate inside and outside the organization about which of those issues mattered most, and how much of the disappointment should be traced to a roster that never fully held together when it mattered most. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Face A Brandon Lowe Decision Fans Know Too Well
Brandon Lowe has given the Pirates exactly what they hoped for when they landed him in December 2025, supplying pop in the middle of the lineup and steadying second base with the kind of defense that makes the position look easy. Through 143 games, he has also become the sort of player a team wants to keep around, and Lowe has already said he is open to talking extension while expressing belief in where Pittsburgh is headed.
The problem, as Pirates fans know all too well, is whether the front office will back that up with a deal that reflects his value. Extension talks are still ongoing, but the conversation is being shaped by familiar questions about payroll limits and ownership choices, leaving the real issue less about Lowe's interest than about whether Pittsburgh will pay what it takes to keep him. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates May Be Near A Brutal Henry Davis Decision
Henry Davis has given the Pirates something they can trust behind the plate. His defense has grown into above-average work, and that matters for a club trying to stabilize a position that often gets overlooked until it becomes a problem. The catch is that his bat still has not matched the defensive progress, which keeps the conversation around him from feeling settled.
That tension helps explain why Pittsburgh reportedly looked into Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman, a player whose offensive profile is stronger even if the glove is not as polished. It also comes at a time when Rafael Flores Jr. has started to look like a legitimate option of his own, with enough ability on both sides to make the Pirates think hard about how the catcher depth chart should look going forward. [Read more 🡒]