In the Dominican on Sunday afternoon, Joely Rodriguez made his third start and went five innings, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks, striking out three batters. He did a good job keeping the ball on the ground, getting nine ground outs, two of them double plays. Four of the hits he allowed were also ground balls.
Prior to Sunday, Rodriguez had thrown eight shutout innings in the Dominican and given up five hits and no walks. He is tentatively scheduled to make one more start this winter before he is shut down for the off-season. He threw 134 innings during the regular season and 22.2 during the Arizona Fall League. If you count his appearance in the AFL Fall-Stars game, he just surpassed 170 innings pitched since the beginning of April.
Mel Rojas Jr. went 1-for-3 with a single. He has gone 11 straight games without an extra-base hit. Prior to this streak, he had doubled in five straight games.
Willy Garcia had one of his best games of the winter, going 2-for-3 with two doubles, a walk and an RBI. He had just one extra-base hit in his previous seven games.
Pedro Florimon went 3-for-4 with three singles and a stolen base. He is 10-for-30(.333) in his last nine games.
Gustavo Nunez went 1-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt. He has nine doubles and two homers in 31 games this year, though he hasn’t picked up an extra-base hit in his last ten games.
Carlos Paulino pinch-hit in the tenth inning and dropped down a sacrifice bunt. He remained in the game behind the plate and did not get another chance to bat.
In Venezuela, Elias Diaz had a tough game at the plate as his team put 11 runs on the board. Diaz did score a run, but he finished the game 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. He is hitting .143 in his first six games. The starting pitchers were Cesar Valdez and Daniel McCutchen, both of whom spent time in the Pirates system. Diaz caught Valdez, who threw five shutout innings.
Junior Sosa went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. He is 2-for-15 since returning two weeks ago from a 19-day unspecified absence.
Gorkys Hernandez hasn’t played in Venezuela since signing with the Pirates last week. He has an injured middle finger on his right hand and will get the hand checked out today to see if he can return to winter action. In a recent interview(link is in Spanish), Hernandez says that he is happy to have another chance with the Pirates and a chance to prove he is a new player. He also said he expects more from himself and will work hard to get back to the Majors.
In Mexico, Sebastian Valle went 1-for-4 with a double and run scored. He has a ten game hit streak in which he has reached base 23 times.
