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Pirates Notes: Pirates Head to Houston for Final Two Spring Games

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In their final game of the Grapefruit League schedule, the Pittsburgh Pirates tied the Baltimore Orioles 1-1 in Sarasota. That gave the Pirates a 14-14 record, with three ties.

The Pirates scheduled three innings each for Trevor Williams, Nick Kingham and Steven Brault. All three pitched well, with Kingham allowing just one runner, while Brault gave up the lone run. They didn’t walk any batters and each of them picked up two strikeouts.

The Pirates got their only run early, as Jung Ho Kang connected for his seventh home run with one out in the top of the first inning. The Pirates had their chances to score, but couldn’t come up with big hits. They had a total of nine hits, including doubles from Pablo Reyes, Josh Bell and Jacob Stallings.

Monday’s Action

The Pirates are in Houston for their final two spring games before heading to Cincinnati for Opening Day. Both games are radio only, beginning tonight with an 8:10 PM EST start time.

Here’s today’s lineup:

  1. Adam Frazier 2B
  2. Starling Marte CF
  3. Corey Dickerson LF
  4. Josh Bell 1B
  5. Francisco Cervelli C
  6. Jung Ho Kang 3B
  7. Lonnie Chisenhall RF
  8. Melky Cabrera DH
  9. Erik Gonzalez SS

Felipe Vazquez, Keone Kela, Richard Rodriguez and Nick Burdi will all pitch today. We should see Kyle Crick as well.

Besides the players still on the active spring roster, the Pirates also brought along Christian Kelley, Will Craig, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Alfredo Reyes and Adrian Valerio for the bench during this two-game series. In the bullpen, Brandon Waddell, Matt Eckelman, Geoff Hartlieb, Montana DuRapau, Tate Scioneaux, Alex McRae and Eduardo Vera also came along. Vera was reportedly going to start on Tuesday, but it appears that Brandon Maurer will start, though he won’t go more than 1-2 innings. You would assume that the Pirates want to make sure he faces MLB hitters, getting to them before they are removed from the game.

Joe Musgrove threw six innings at Pirate City today. He threw 80 pitches, then finished his night in the bullpen.

Here’s an update from the Pirates:

Lonnie Chisenhall left after getting hit in the hand with a pitch in the sixth. It was at the point when regulars leave the game, so it could be nothing. Probably have an update in the morning and an article only if it’s something noteworthy.

Tuesday’s Action

Tuesday is the final spring game. Pirates take on Astros at 2:10 PM. Chris Archer will be pitching at Pirate City tomorrow. He’s scheduled to go six innings.

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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