Nearly two years after he last pitched in a major league game, Johan Oviedo is ready to return to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 27-year-old right-hander will get the start on Monday against the visiting San Francisco Giants and veteran Justin Verlander.
The teams are set to open a three-game series after Pittsburgh swept a three-game set last week in San Francisco.
The Pirates fell Friday and Saturday against the Colorado Rockies before earning a 9-5 victory in Denver on Sunday.
The Monday game would have been Bailey Falter’s next turn in the Pittsburgh rotation, but he was dealt to the Kansas City Royals before the trade deadline on Thursday.
That opened a rotation spot for Oviedo. With the Pirates in 2023, Oviedo went 9-14 with a 4.31 ERA over 32 starts 177 2/3 innings, but he underwent his elbow operation that December.
After missing all of the 2024 season, he began rehabbing in the minor leagues this year on June 30. In five starts for four teams in the Pittsburgh farm system this year, Oviedo went 1-2 with a 3.12 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings. He was pulled from a scheduled start for Triple-A Indianapolis on Sunday.
“I definitely feel like I missed it, because I’ve been out of the game for such a long time,” Oviedo said recently after a rehab pitching session in Pittsburgh. “There’s nothing that compares to actually being on the playing field.”
The Pirates will have to make a move on Monday to add Oviedo to the active roster. In three career starts against the Giants, he is 0-1 with a 2.35 ERA.
San Francisco had lost six in a row before taking two of three over the weekend against the host New York Mets, including a 12-4 victory on Sunday.
“It’s good for us even though every loss now feels like the end of the world,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of the series victory. “We put ourselves in that position. So to be able to start on the road after an awful homestand and win two out of three, it feels a lot better.”
Verlander (1-8, 4.53 ERA) was the subject of trade rumors in the leadup to the deadline, but the Giants stuck with the three-time Cy Young Award winner.
In an otherwise difficult first season with the Giants, Verlander seems to have finally found his stride over his past two starts.
Verlander finally recorded his first victory on July 23 against the Atlanta Braves, and then he gave up one run on six hits and struck out seven over five innings on Tuesday against the Pirates.
The lone run he allowed came on a solo home run by Liover Peguero, which was only the second homer allowed by the nine-time All-Star in his past seven starts (32 2/3 innings).
Still, Verlander left with a no-decision after Pittsburgh won 3-1. He is 5-2 with a 3.36 ERA in nine career starts vs. the Pirates.
Pittsburgh bounced back after two frustrating losses to the Rockies in which it blew a nine-run lead on Friday and a four-run lead on Saturday. The frustrating results followed the Pirates’ best stretch of the season, as they won eight of their prior nine games.
Spencer Horwitz continues to be one of the biggest sparks in the Pirates’ lineup, putting together his first multi-homer game with Pittsburgh on Sunday while logging a career-high six RBIs. Horwitz is 9-for-20 (.450) during a five-game hitting streak.
“We’ve been playing good ball on this road trip,” Horwitz said, according to MLB.com. “To finish it on a win is definitely rewarding, so we’re going to keep it rolling at home.”
–Field Level Media
