The Pirates took to the road for the first time this spring and lost to Detroit, 8-7. The game ended on a home run in the bottom of the ninth off Osvaldo Bido. The Pirates had tied it in the top of the eighth on a three-run, 433-foot shot by Travis Swaggerty.
The starter was Johan Oviedo, whose mission this spring is to make a case for a six-man rotation. Instead, he made a case for ignoring September stats. He threw everything right down the middle and gave up a ton of hard contact. The Tigers got five hits and four runs in the first. In the second, Oviedo managed to get the lasers aimed at fielders.
As a quick aside, a six-man rotation makes a lot of sense, assuming somebody looks better than Oviedo did today. The Pirates are going to have one starter who’s 43, one who has a 5.87 ERA as a starter the last three years, and one who wore down late last year. On the other hand, if you subscribe to The Athletic, Eno Sarris has a piece on dark horse pitchers that has a very positive, data-driven take on Mitch Keller.
In the daily bullpen battle, two of the more established relievers did well, two NRIs not so much. Duane Underwood, Jr., struck out the side in his inning. Chase De Jong got four outs without a run, although he walked two.
On the NRI side, Caleb Smith allowed a solo home run and Daniel Zamora gave up a two-run bomb. Smith at least went an inning and two-thirds, so there’s that.
Two pitchers from minor league camp finished. Bido got only one out before allowing the winner. Juan Minaya (I had to look him up — sorry, Juan) threw a scoreless eighth. Minaya pitched well for the Twins in 2021, but had a very rough year last year, hence the minor league deal without an invite.
On the lineup side, the Pirates continued the task of examining positional issues. Ji-Hwan Bae and Rodolfo Castro were both in the lineup, with Castro at third. Potentially, he could allow them to give Ke’Bryan Hayes a regular break as DH. Jack Suwinski played center again, as they’re no doubt deciding whether he can back up Bryan Reynolds there. Endy Rodriguez played first.
The middle of the lineup (2-5) didn’t have much of a day. Bae, Castro, Suwinski and Cal Mitchell all went 0-for-3, with Bae fanning three times and Suwinski twice. Bae remains hitless on the spring.
Oneil Cruz had two hits, including his first longball of the season, an opposite-field shot off a pitch low and away. Rodriguez was 1-for-2 with a double. He scored on a single by Matt Gorski.
The “second team” had a solid day. Apart from Swaggerty, Liover Peguero had an RBI single in two times up, and Nick Gonzales singled and walked. Henry Davis successfully employed evasive maneuvers and walked his only time up.
