The tournament games for the World Baseball Classic didn’t provide much for today’s article, but the exhibition games for teams still waiting to open up their tournament had some Pittsburgh Pirates in action.
Roansy Contreras was the highlight of the day with his three shutout innings for the Dominican Republic over the Atlanta Braves. He allowed two hits, while striking out four batters.
David Bednar pitched the eighth inning of Team USA’s 5-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants. He tossed a scoreless frame on one hit and one strikeout.
Duane Underwood Jr allowed one run on one hit, one walk and one strikeout in Puerto Rico’s loss to the Boston Red Sox.
As for the actual action that counts, Josh Palacios and the Netherlands took on Panama. He went 0-for-3, but his team won for the second day in a row, taking a 4-1 contest.
Australia won the other Wednesday night game 8-7 over Korea. Japan beat China this morning 8-1. Italy defeated Cuba 6-3. Neither Pirates pitcher on Italy saw action.
Sources out of the Dominican reported last night that Luis Ortiz is replacing the injured Jarlin Garcia on the Dominican roster.
Here’s yesterday’s recap in case you missed it. Here’s our WBC preview, which has the schedule for the tournament.
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.
I hope Roansy pitches 5 innings 30 times this year w a couple starts skipped. I think he could be a fabulous 80-150 inning/year pitcher.
Skip his starts only if he is fatigued or needs a break, please – and promote more than 5 innings if he is doing well (like Keller got at the end of the year). If he remains strong and effective, build up his strength so that he will be a 150 + inning pitcher. This would be more ideal. The team needs both durable and good pitchers if they ever hope to be winners.
That’s cool that Ortiz is replacing Garcia, nice lil tidbit
It can help his confidence a lot to pitch for the DR which looks like an All Star team. He and Roansy together – I wonder if they may let Ortiz start a game or two along the way?