The Pirates played split squad games, losing to the Orioles, 7-6, at LECOM and tying the Twins, 2-2, on the road. They’re now 4-11-3 on the spring.
The Orioles’ game went south in the second inning, as Rich Hill had a start that he himself described as “crap.” He got hit around for five runs and came out for Cam Alldred to finish the inning, then came back to finish well, throwing three and a third total. Considering that Hill’s been around since the deadball era and has always come back from bad days, this isn’t likely to register on anybody.
The bullpen got some good performances. The exception was Cody Bolton, who allowed two runs on a double and triple. The Pirates by then had tied the game, so that accounted for the loss.
Chase De Jong got, I think, four outs. (Gameday seems to have gotten messed up by the Hill in-and-out business.) Mike Burrows got sent down, but put up two scoreless innings, with three strikeouts, on his way out. He walked the first batter and that guy got to third with one out, but he got out of it. Dauri Moreta had another scoreless inning, going more with the fastball this time.
The offense got more going than usual. The most significant development was, perhaps, some movement toward clarity in the outfield job competition. Travis Swaggerty went 2-for-2 and is now hitting .368. He’s having easily the best spring of any of the team’s outfielders and he’s easily the best defender to begin with.
There are two other factors in Swaggerty’s favor. One is Jack Suwinski’s struggles in center field, where he played again today. He’s had a lot of trouble with the sun and that continued today. Of course, the Pirates don’t play in the daytime or in Florida much, but Swaggerty hasn’t had the same problems, so it should mean something, as somebody has to back up Bryan Reynolds, or maybe even start there. The second helpful event was Ryan Vilade, who’s still on the roster, being sent down.
Suwinski, by the way, went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. He appears to have a starting job locked up, but he’s whiffed 12 times in 21 at-bats this spring, following a terrible second half of 2022, both in the majors and in AAA.
Two prospects continued their strong springs. Endy Rodriguez was 2-for-2 and Nick Gonzales 1-for-2. They’re hitting .412 and .389, respectively. Rodriguez got sent down, along with Jared Triolo, who finally got his first hit, a double.
The other notable job aspirant who played was Tucupita Marcano. He went 0-for-2 with a walk and also had some defensive trouble at second.
In the road game, maybe the most interesting occurrence was Kyle Nicolas getting the start. He replaced Vince Velasquez, who moved his start to Pirate City. Nicolas gave up a run over two and two-thirds. He didn’t exactly fill the strike zone, throwing 28 strikes in 50 innings.
Jose Hernandez got the last out in the third, stranding two of Nicolas’ runners, but he had a shaky fourth. He allowed a run on two hits and a walk, and threw 18 of 30 pitches for strikes overall.
Colin Holderman threw a scoreless inning despite throwing only eight of 16 pitches for strikes. This was another game in which the Pirates didn’t exactly fill the strike zone.
Daniel Zamora threw two scoreless innings, while throwing 19 sliders on 29 pitches. You have to wonder whether he has a shot at the opening day roster.
Tyler Chatwood and Juan Minaya each had a scoreless inning. Chatwood managed despite two walks, a wild pitch, a balk and an error, and only 11 of 22 pitches thrown for strikes.
The offense wasn’t much. Canaan Smith-Njigba helped himself by launching his first home run, in fact his first extra base hit. His big battle, of course, is hitting something other than ground balls. Matt Gorski, who replaced Smith-Njigba in the batting order, drove in the tying run.
Of the other hopefuls, Rodolfo Castro, Connor Joe, Miguel Andujar and Cal Mitchell all went 0-for-3. Ji-Hwan Bae was 1-for-3. Mark Mathias made his Pirate debut, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, so he looks like he’ll fit right in. Chris Owings, ominously playing center, had a single and a walk, and got picked off base.
