After career years in 2023, Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller and Marlins left-hander Jesús Luzardo will toe the rubber for their respective clubs on Opening Day. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET on March 28 at loanDepot park.

Here’s a breakdown of the matchup:

RHP Mitch Keller

Previous Opening Day starts: 2023

2023 Season: 13-9, 4.21 ERA, 32 starts, 194 1/3 IP, 210 K's, 105 ERA+, 3.3 fWAR

For the first time since Francisco Liriano from 2014-16, the Pirates will have the same Opening Day starting pitcher in consecutive years. In 2023, Keller's season-opening start set the pace for his first All-Star nod. And while manager Derek Shelton played coy on who his Opening Day starters were during his first four years as the Bucs' skipper, he was quick to announce Keller as the head of his rotation this year, showing how far the 27-year-old right-hander has come.

It wasn’t that long ago that an All-Star appearance and two Opening Day starts seemed far-fetched for Keller. After struggling through 2021 and the early parts of '22, which included being optioned to the Minors and briefly the bullpen, Keller expanded his arsenal and pitched with renewed confidence, helping him to excel.

A second-half slump inflated his season ERA, but didn’t take away that he was the Pirates’ most reliable starter last year, striking out 210 along the way to set a franchise record for a right-handed pitcher.

Keller is fresh off inking a five/year, $77 million deal in February. The team will be calling up plenty of young pitchers in the coming months and years, and Keller will be at the front of that rotation for years to come.

LHP Jesús Luzardo

Previous Opening Day starts: None

2023 Season: 10-10, 3.50 ERA, 32 starts, 178 2/3 IP, 208 K's, 125 ERA+, 3.7 fWAR

With ace Sandy Alcantara rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, hometown kid Luzardo gets the Opening Day nod for the first time in his six-year big league career. Manager Skip Schumaker wasted no time announcing the news, doing so early in camp.

Luzardo, 26, grew up watching Ricky Nolasco and Josh Beckett draw Opening Day assignments. Now, he will join franchise lore as the 18th pitcher to do so -- and the first not named Alcantara in the past five years.

Luzardo has come a long way since being dealt to Miami from Oakland for Starling Marte ahead of the 2021 Trade Deadline. At the self-described lowest point of his career, Luzardo not only had a 4.79 career ERA but he had also sustained a hairline fracture in his left pinkie from a video game incident that sidelined him for an extended period.

After some growing pains in his initial stint with the Marlins in 2021, Luzardo posted a 124 ERA+ in two full seasons from '22-23. He became one of the National League's most valuable arms last year, finishing eighth among qualified pitchers in fWAR and ERA. Luzardo also set the single-season franchise record for a southpaw with 208 strikeouts last season. With Alcantara sidelined, Luzardo started Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series in the Marlins’ first postseason appearance in a full season in two decades.