On a slow night in Winter ball, almost all the action from Thursday happened in Venezuela. Andrew Lambo went 0-for-3 with a walk, as his Cardenales de Lara team lost 3-1. He is hitting .103 through nine games, going 3-for-29 with five walks and five RBIs.
Elvis Escobar got into the Cardenales game late as a pinch-runner. He was quickly erased on a double play. It was his fourth appearance of the season.
The Bravos de Margarita club had a lot of Pittsburgh Pirates connections for a Winter League game. Junior Sosa and Elias Diaz were in the starting lineup and Jhonathan Ramos pitched in relief. All three had strong games, though the Bravos still lost 8-4.
Junior Sosa went 3-for-4 with a triple and a run scored. Sosa is 5-for-14 in five games.
Elias Diaz went 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and two runs scored. He is hitting .231 in 11 games, with seven walks.
Jhonathan Ramos retired all three batters he faced after coming in during the fifth inning with no outs and two men on. One runner scored as Ramos got two ground balls and a strikeout. In his last four appearances, he has thrown a total of four innings, giving up one hit and no runs. Ten of the 12 outs he recorded came on ground balls, while the other two were strikeouts. The only hit he allowed was to Andrew Lambo.
In Mexico, Jay Jackson extended his scoreless appearance streak to 16 games this Winter, but it was not a successful outing. Jackson came on in the bottom of the tenth inning with the score tied, one out and two men out base. He faced one batter and allowed a double, ending the game. His ERA still stands at 0.00 through 19 innings.
In Australia from Friday, the Perth Heat and Sydney Blue Sox met up for the first time, pitting the only two Pirates players in the league against each other. Sam Kennelly and the Heat came out on top, winning 1-0. Kennelly went 0-for-4 in the win, dropping his average to .172 through eight games. On the other side, Danny Arribas went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. He is 6-for-36 in ten games, with five walks and six runs scored.
From Wednesday in the Colombian League, Harold Ramirez went 0-for-3, but still had a hand in his team’s 15-4 win. He had two walks, scored two runs, had a sacrifice hit and an RBI. Ramirez was the only Pirates player to get into action in Colombia. His Tigres team is in first place with a 12-2 record, three games ahead of second place.
The Dominican, Colombian and Puerto Rican Leagues were all off on Thursday.
