In Dominican League playoff action from last night, Starling Marte went deep for the third time in four games, helping his team to a 6-3 win. Marte returned to Winter League action Friday night and homered in the eighth inning to help his team to a 5-3 victory. On Sunday night, he drove in four runs, including two on a first inning homer. Last night his homer came in the ninth inning as he exacted a bit of revenge. After singling in his first time up, then getting thrown out on a bunt attempt in the third, Marte was hit by a pitch in both the sixth and seventh innings. The solo homer gave his team a comfortable five run lead as they held on to win 6-3.
In other action from the Dominican from last night, Felix Pie went 1-for-4, with a run scored and an RBI. He also stole his third base of the playoffs. It was just the fourth playoff hit for Pie, who saw his average rise to .148 while watching his team drop to 2-8 in the playoffs. Alex Valdez was once again on the bench.
Action from Monday night
With the Dominican League off on Monday, there was very light action from Pirates players in Winter League ball. Darren Ford came in as a defensive replacement in left field and never got to bat in his team’s 5-3 win. Ford has been benched after opening the playoffs with an 0-for-11 slump at the plate.
Ford’s teammate, Luis Sanz, pitched a scoreless sixth inning, walking one and striking out one. He has now pitched three scoreless innings in the playoffs. During the regular season, he allowed just one earned run in 11.1 innings.
Notes from Australia
Adelaide plays the next four days, starting with an interesting matchup in the Thursday night game. Zac Fuesser(3-3, 3.88) takes on former Pirates pitcher Anthony Claggett(3-4, 3.54). Fuesser has run into some recent trouble, allowing 12 hits and eight walks in his last nine innings(two starts). His prior start to those two outings came against Claggett’s Perth team and Fuesser gave up just one unearned run over six innings in that outing. Perth also has another former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher in their starting rotation, Virgil Vasquez(4-3 2.77).
