The Pirates played their first night game of the spring, in Sarasota. They tied the Orioles, 1-1, and are now 1-4-2 on the spring.
Vince Velasquez made his first start and allowed a run over two innings. That came when a clock violation cost him ball four, then the next batter doubled. He gave up one other walk.
David Bednar continued his quick buildup for the WBC. He had a quick inning, just a popup and two strikeouts. The inning ended on another clock violation, as the major leaguers continue struggling with the new rule more than class A minor leaguers did.
The prospects put in another good day in relief. Carmen Mlodzinski threw two innings, allowing just a walk. Quinn Priester gave up a hit and a walk, but no runs. Cody Bolton had a quick inning with two strikeouts.
Nate Webb, who’s one of the more interesting dark horses among the pitchers, got into a first-and-third, one-out jam, but got out of it with a strikeout and a fly out.
Wei-Chieh Huang nearly gave the game away in the ninth. After a one-out single, he balked the runner to second and wild pitched him to third. But a strikeout and ground out preserved the tie.
The hitters continued to travel The Way of Haines, which certainly makes it easy to summarize their offensive day. They managed just four hits and a walk, with no hits after the fifth.
The guys battling for jobs made little headway. Rodolfo Castro and Cal Mitchell each went 0-for-2, both strikeouts in Castro’s case. Ji-Hwan Bae and Jack Suwinski combined to produce a little offense. Bae singled in the first, stole second and scored on Suwinski’s infield hit off the shortstop’s glove. Bae finished 1-for-3, Suwinski 1-for-2 with a walk.
The Indianapolis squad came in en masse, as usual, but this time produced nothing as they become more familiar with The Way. The only baserunner came when — you can surely guess it — got hit by a pitch.
Having followed the Pirates fanatically since 1965, Wilbur Miller is one of the fast-dwindling number of fans who’ve actually seen good Pirate teams. He’s even seen Hall-of-Fame Pirates who didn’t get traded mid-career, if you can imagine such a thing. His first in-person game was a 5-4, 11-inning win at Forbes Field over Milwaukee (no, not that one). He’s been writing about the Pirates at various locations online for over 20 years. It has its frustrations, but it’s certainly more cathartic than writing legal stuff. Wilbur is retired and now lives in Bradenton with his wife and three temperamental cats.
Looks like Drew Maggie is the pirates best hitter this spring.
Last year it was fun to watch Altoona and dream. This year it will be fun to watch Indy and dream. And, if you get a chance to go to Victory Field (accompolished that on a business trip), do it!
Technically speaking, any ST game which results in no significant injuries is a victory. But it sure would be nice for Pirates to start practicing the post-game celebration handshake after a victory a bit more often, too.
Anybody have any Velocity numbers for Mlodzinski, Priester, and Bolton?
Game day doesn’t have it. I guess Ed Smith Stadium isn’t set up for it. Don’t know about Statcast.
Just checked. No Statcast.
At least they didn’t lose.
Andy Haines should stick to making t-shirts and underwear.
Don’t they do shootouts in ST? /s