Friday night was a slow night for Pittsburgh Pirates news in winter league, but one big story came out of the Dominican. Stolmy Pimentel threw six shutout innings, giving up two hits, no walks and he struck out six batters. Pimentel faced one batter over the minimum. It was a big rebound game for him after he gave up five earned runs over 1.2 innings in his last start. Pimentel has a 5.06 ERA though nine starts, but that total is skewed by two poor outings. In his other seven starts, he has a 2.48 ERA over 29 innings. He has now thrown 32 innings in winter ball after throwing 32.2 innings this year for the Pirates. He also pitched 10.1 innings in the minors on a rehab assignment this year, so he is now up to 75 innings on the year.
Edwin Espinal had three hits in his first start on Thursday. On Friday, he pinch-hit for DH Manny Ramirez in the fifth inning and went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts.
Josh Wall retired all three batters he faced, one by strikeout. In four outings, he has allowed two runs over three innings.
In Venezuela, Elias Diaz went 0-for-1, but he ended up walking three times and scoring three runs. He had three walks total in his first 11 winter games. Diaz has a .162/.295/.270 slash line through 37 at-bats. In that same game, Junior Sosa was a late-game replacement in left field and he walked in his only plate appearance.
Matt Nevarez faced two batters and gave up a walk and single. For the second game in a row, a runner Nevarez left on base, scored with Jhonathan Ramos on the mound. This time it was hardly the fault of Ramos, who faced one batter and got a double play grounder that allowed the runner from third base to score.
Deolis Guerra pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one batter. He has made six straight scoreless appearances, totaling 5.2 innings. In 15 innings this winter, he has 19 strikeouts.
In Puerto Rico, Yhonathan Barrios had his second straight solid outing, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings. He allowed one hit and struck out two batters. In his last outing he threw two shutout innings, but both of these shutout performances had one downside. In each, he allowed an inherited runner to score on a wild pitch. It’s a nice turnaround for Barrios, who gave up nine earned runs in his first four innings.
In Panama, Edgar Munoz went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a walk. He has a .421/.500/.632 slash line through five games.
Ashley Ponce went 0-for-2. He is 2-for-12 with four runs scored in five games.
