In late results from Colombia on Thursday night, shortstop Francisco Acuna made his second playoff start and went 2-for-4 with two singles. He went 0-for-5 with a walk in his first two playoff games, one of them coming off the bench.
From Friday in Australia, Michael Suchy was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the fifth inning. He was still in the game long enough to extend his on base streak to 17 games. He went 1-for-3 with a single and a run scored. Suchy was back in center field again. As mentioned yesterday, he has been playing there a lot recently despite manning center field just seven times in four seasons with the Pirates. He is hitting .280/.363/.486 through 29 games.
Robbie Glendinning cooled off on Friday, going 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. He’s now hitting .359 with a double, two homers, 14 runs scored and eight walks in ten games. Glendinning has played all ten games at shortstop, where he has committed one error in 52 chances.
In Puerto Rico, 2017 32nd round draft pick Hector Quinones made his second appearance this winter. After allowing one run over 1.1 innings in his debut, he allowed two runs over 1.1 innings in his second game. Quinones gave up two hits and two walks, with no strikeouts.
In Venezuela, Elvis Escobar had a rare quiet playoff game, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout. He went 2-for-4 in the opener of the second round on Thursday.
In the Dominican, Richard Rodriguez threw a shutout inning, retiring the side in order, one by strikeout. Before signing with the Pirates on December 7th, he had made seven straight appearances without an earned run. Since signing, he has extended that streak to 18 games. The last six games of that streak have been in the playoffs.
On Friday, we lost one of our article fillers. Anderson Feliz signed a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles, so we won’t be covering him in the winter articles anymore. I expected him to sign somewhere soon because he’s still relatively young and putting up solid stats this winter. Plus he plays multiple positions and he’s a switch-hitter, so there’s still a lot to like about him. His upside would be a bench player in the majors, so it’s not a real loss for the Pirates. They have a crowded infield set for Indianapolis already and Altoona looks promising as well, leaving no role for him with the Pirates in 2018.
