Saturday marked the beginning of the winter league season in Puerto Rico. Two Pittsburgh Pirates prospects showed up on Opening Day rosters, but that number could change as the season goes along. Here’s a recap of all of Saturday’s action around winter ball for Pirates prospects.
In Puerto Rico, Bligh Madris batted cleanup for Gigantes de Carolina and had a nice opener in his team’s 5-1 loss, going 2-for-3 with a walk.
Ethan Paul was teammates with Madris in Indianapolis and now he’s teammates with him in Puerto Rico. He started at second base and batted ninth in the opener. He went 0-for-1 with a walk before leaving for a pinch-hitter.
In the Dominican, Rodolfo Castro hit his first homer of the winter. He went 3-for-5 and scored two runs. On Friday night, he had two hits, after going 0-for-10 in his first four games of the season. Here’s the homer:
Batazo laaaargo de Rodolfo Castro y los @torosdeleste estrenan el marcador en el Julián Javier
Hunter Stratton pitched against Castro’s team and had a rough/brief outing, giving up two runs on two hits, while recording one out. Stratton and Castro squared off to start the ninth, with the batter getting the victory, as Castro singled on a grounder up the middle.
Christian Bethancourt went 0-for-4, and his average dropped to .143 this winter season.
In Mexico, Randy Romero went 1-for-4 with a single. He’s hitting .294/.371/.330 in 28 games.
