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Winter Leagues: Big Game For Benji Gonzalez

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In Puerto Rico from Tuesday night, Jerry Sands and his teammates had a rough night. The team managed just one hit the entire game, a third inning single, and Sands went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. He is hitting .250 through 23 games and has struck out 25 times in 76 at-bats. Sands ranks 11th in the league with an .812 OPS.

Benji Gonzalez got his first real chance to play and he went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored. Coming into the game, Gonzalez had made two appearances off the bench, going 0-for-2. He didn’t start the game Tuesday, but he played nearly the entire contest. Gonzalez came in as a pinch-runner in the first inning.

Ivan De Jesus Jr. went 0-for-1 with an RBI, two walks and two runs scored. He is hitting .307 through 22 games and leads the league in both walks and runs scored.

In the Dominican, Gregory Polanco was again out of the lineup due to a stomach virus. On Monday, he was scratched shortly before first pitch.

Oscar Tejeda came in as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning and lined out to right field. He is hitting .242 in 62 at-bats, with three walks and 20 strikeouts.

Atahualpa Severino pitched a scoreless ninth inning, giving up one hit and picking up a strikeout. He has made 12 straight scoreless appearances dating back to late October.

Felix Pie went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. He is hitting .318 through 13 games. Pie, Severino, Tejeda and De Jesus all remain free agents at this time. De Jesus has been linked to the Baltimore Orioles.

The Venezuelan League was off yesterday.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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