Wednesday’s winter league action from the players for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In Colombia, Luis Escobar got the start. He cruised through three scoreless innings, then things fell apart in the fourth. He gave up four runs on five hits, a walk and a hit batter. Three of the hits were soft contact, including a bloop infield hit and a ball that went off an infielder’s glove, but the other two were hard hit doubles. His first start this winter was two shutout innings and it was shortened due to a power outage at the stadium. The delay was too long for him to pitch the third inning.
Luis Arrieta made his first appearance of the winter and tossed a scoreless eighth inning. He was one of three relievers who followed Luis Escobar. The 20-year-old Arrieta had a 5.73 ERA in 22 innings over 13 appearances with Bristol this season. He was hurt by control issues, with 20 walks and three hit batters in his limited time.
They still aren’t posting boxscores in Colombia, but from game recaps, I know that Francisco Acuna drove in a run in the opener, drove in a run in the second game and had a two-run single in the third game, picking up two hits. He’s apparently doing well through four games, but that might just some timely hitting.
In the Dominican, Pablo Reyes started at shortstop and went 1-for-4 with a single. In nine games, he is hitting .194/.212/.472, with five extra-base hits.
Williams Jerez struck out the only batter he faced, stranding two inherited runners to end the fifth inning. In five appearances, he has thrown 2.2 shutout innings with five strikeouts.
The Pirates announced on Wednesday night that Erik Gonzalez had successful surgery on his left foot and he would need 10-12 weeks to be back to full baseball activities, which would have him ready for Spring Training.
