In Mexico on Thursday night, Luis Heredia had his worst outing of the winter, facing three batters without recording an out. He only threw three strikes in his abbreviated outing, issuing two walks and hitting a batter. Two of the runners scored after he was pulled from the game. In 9.2 innings over seven appearances this winter, Heredia has allowed five runs on six hits and seven walks, with two strikeouts.
Sam Kennelly made his debut in Australia on Friday(13 hours ahead of the East Coast). He went 2-for-3 and started at third base. Kennelly has played in the ABL for three seasons already, but has always been the youngest or among the youngest players in the league and struggled. In 56 ABL games prior to Friday, he put up a .144 average, with nine walks and one extra-base hit. The play in Australia is about what you would see in AA, so as someone who was 16-18 years old for those first three years, you really couldn’t expect much. On defense, he played all four spots and made just four errors, so that kept him in the lineup.
In the Dominican on Thursday night, the double play combo for Estrellas de Oriente played together for Indianapolis this season. Pedro Florimon batted lead-off at shortstop and Gustavo Nunez played second base. Florimon was playing his second game since joining his winter team. He went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Nunez went 0-for-3 before leaving for a pinch-hitter. The team had a lot of recent Pirates in the lineup as well, with Stolmy Pimentel starting, Felix Pie in left field and Michael Martinez in center field.
Edwin Espinal made his third straight appearance as a late inning defensive replacement at first base. He got to start four games in a row last week, but hasn’t batted since October 30th.
Josh Wall threw a scoreless inning, walking one and striking out three batters. He has a 1.93 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 9.1 innings.
In Venezuela, Jose Osuna went 1-for-5 with a double and an RBI. He’s hitting .378 through 23 games, with seven doubles and two homers.
Gorkys Hernandez went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt. He has a .270 average and .669 OPS in 23 games.
Deolis Guerra, who just declared free agency last week, has joined his team in Venezuela. He had a 6.48 ERA in ten appearances with the Pirates this season.
