Jeff Locke gave up four runs and Eric O'Flaherty gave up five runs in the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
After taking the first spring training game from the Detroit Tigers yesterday, the Pirates fell to the Tigers today by the final score of 10-3. Jeff Locke started the game for Pittsburgh and struggled mightily. The offense could not get anything going and right hander Buck Farmer along with the rest of the Tiger pitchers shut down the Pirates.
While the starting pitching struggled in this game, the relief pitchers pitched very well for the most part. Many of the Pirates potential 2016 key bullpen contributors pitched in the game and for the most part did very well. This is a good sign as the starting pitching is whats in question for the upcoming 2016 season.
Locke started the game and struggled giving up four runs on four hits while walking one in 2.0 innings of work. Locke gave up three straight hits to start the game and gave up an RBI double to Jose Iglesias followed by an RBI single for Nick Castellanos to make the score 2-0 Tigers. The Tigers would add two more to start out the game with a 4-0 lead. Locke settled down in inning number two and did not allow any runs.
Locke, who struggled mightily last season with a 9-11 record, struggled again in his first spring outing in 2016. He is fighting Kyle Lobstein, who had a great start yesterday, for the fifth starter spot in the rotation. Today Locke just gave up too many hits and it all seemed to snow ball on him in inning number one.
However, after Locke the next three innings were clean as AJ Schugel, Juan Nicasio, and Mark Melancon each threw scoreless innings. Schugel gave up only one hit and struck out one, Nicasio walked two and struck out one, and Melancon retired the side in order in the fifth. Nicasio and Melancon are both making cases for the Pirates 2016 bullpen.
Many Pirates fans, including myself, thought Melancon was going to leave during the off-season. However, he is back in a Pirates uniform and, at least in his first outing, looked pretty sharp on the mound. Having him be a consistent closer for the Pirates is essential for the Pirates to contend in 2016.
Up next Jared Hughes gave up one run, a solo home run to Jared Saltalamacchia, on two hits in his one inning of work. He was followed by Arquimedes Caminero who had a 1-2-3 top of the seventh striking out two of the three batters he faced. Both of these guys will be slated in the middle of the Pirates bullpen and look to contribute in 2016.
Non-roster invitee Eric O'Flaherty followed and struggled in his first spring training outing with the Pirates. He gave up five runs on three hits while hitting a batter and walking one in his one inning of work. The fortunate thing for O'Flaherty is that none of the runs he gave up were earned as an error by Gift Ngeope helped the Tigers get a rally going. O'Flaherty was very wild in his debut and will need to work on that as spring training progresses.
The game was finished out by two non-roster invitees as Jorge Rondon threw 0.2 innings striking out two and walking one, and Daniel Bard through 0.1 innings and got his only batter faced out on one pitch.
Besides a couple of rough outings, the pitching in general was decent today. Take out the efforts of Locke and O'Flaherty and its a whole new ball game. Going forward Locke and O'Flaherty both have to be more efficient in their pitches and they cannot let innings snowball on them like what happened today.
On the offensive side, we saw a lot of Pittsburgh's regular starters in the lineup including Andrew McCutchen, Gregory Polanco, John Jaso, and Starling Marte. The offense was pretty much shut down by the Tigers pitching staff especially early on in the game.
Marte had a good day at the plate going 1 for 2 with a run scored hitting out of the fifth spot in the lineup. Marte had a break-out year last season in terms of home runs and RBI and looks to continue to contribute to the Pirates in 2016. The key for Marte will be limiting the number of strike outs this season as he has struck out over 100 times in each of his major league seasons.
Another batter who performed well today is Sean Rodriguez. Rodriguez went 1 for 2 on the day with a single in the second inning. Rodriguez is fighting for a spot on the Pirates bench where he can be used as the super utility man in 2016. His ability to play multiple positions will help increase his value to the 2016 Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates scored their first run of the day on a fielders choice by Josh Bell that allowed Rodriguez to score. The Pirates were shut down until the ninth inning when RBIs by Ngeope and Adam Frazier added the final two runs on the day for the Pirates.
Frazier again stood out for the minor leaguers as he went 1 for 1 with an RBI and a walk. Frazier has had a strong showing in his first two games for the Pirates here in spring training getting hits in 2 of his first three at bats. A guy who was not on anybody's radar coming into spring training could be moving his way up the latter in the Pirates system.
Even though the Pirates fell today, there were still some positives to come out of this game. Melancon, Nicasio, and Caminero all performed well out of the bullpen in their first spring training actions, and Hughes was haunted by one bad pitch in his outing but otherwise performed very well. On the offensive side, some of the starters got their first look at live pitches today and can build off of that as the spring goes on.
Tomorrow, the Pirates will be back in action at McKechnie field as they take on the Toronto Blue Jays. The Toronto Blue Jays will be sending right hander Gavin Floyd to the mound while the Pirates have yet to name their starter for the game. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment