ARCHIVE March 30, 2026
March 30, 2026 · NL Cent

Pittsburgh Pirates vs Cincinnati Reds

March 30, 2026Great American Ball ParkPartly Cloudy 74°F · 14 mph, In From RF
AWAY
Pittsburgh Pirates
1-3
0
vs
HOME
Cincinnati Reds
3-1
2

Starting pitchers

AWAY · PIT
Braxton Ashcraft
Braxton Ashcraft
IP 6
HOME · CIN
Chase Burns
Chase Burns
IP 5

Lineups

AWAY · PIT
  1. 1 Oneil Cruz CF
  2. 2 Brandon Lowe 2B
  3. 3 Bryan Reynolds LF
  4. 4 Marcell Ozuna DH
  5. 5 Ryan O'Hearn RF
  6. 6 Jared Triolo SS
  7. 7 Spencer Horwitz 1B
  8. 8 Nick Gonzales 3B
  9. 9 Henry Davis C
HOME · CIN
  1. 1 TJ Friedl CF
  2. 2 Matt McLain 2B
  3. 3 Elly De La Cruz SS
  4. 4 Sal Stewart 1B
  5. 5 Eugenio Suárez DH
  6. 6 Spencer Steer LF
  7. 7 Will Benson RF
  8. 8 Tyler Stephenson C
  9. 9 Ke'Bryan Hayes 3B

Box score

  123456789 R
PIT 000000000 0
CIN 000200000 2

Manager comparison

Both managers grade C- / B- entering this matchup.

AWAY · PIT
Don Kelly
C- Lineup 2.3 R Bunts 0.3 R IBBs 0.8 R
HOME · CIN
Terry Francona
B- Lineup 0.9 R Bunts 0.8 R IBBs 0.8 R

Recent form

AWAY · PIT
5-5 W2 +1 run diff
WWLWWWLLLL
HOME · CIN
1-9 L8 -46 run diff
LLLLLLLLWL

Season series: 3-0 with PIT listed first across 3 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Manager lineup cost +0.06 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.18 vs actual lineup 3.12
  • Player execution −3.12 R/G Players fell 3.12 short of the lineup's 3.12 projection (scored 0)
  • Game variance −3.18 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Cruz 0-for-4 batting 1st

HOME · Cincinnati Reds
  • Manager lineup cost +0.03 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.74 vs actual lineup 3.71
  • Player execution −1.71 R/G Players fell 1.71 short of the lineup's 3.71 projection (scored 2)
  • Game variance −1.74 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Friedl 0-for-3 batting 1st

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.2 – 3.7 — actual was 0 – 2.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.