Pirates vs. Manatee Community College, Wrap-Up

The Pirates avenged their loss last year to Manatee Community College today by defeating them soundly, by the score of 6-1. Let's get a quick wrap-up then go 3 up, 3 down.

The scoring was started in the bottom of the first, when Pedro Alvarez doubled in John Raynor, who had reached on an error. It wasn't exactly a well-hit double, it was kind just a bloop that was horribly misplayed. The Manatees/Lancers/Whatever they call themselves did not look too good in the field today. After that, home runs from Brandon Moss, Steve Pearce, and Erik Kratz put the Pirates up 6-0 after the third inning. The offense then stopped, as the Pirates put up 3 0's in the next three frames.

The pitchers that took the mound performed did okay today. They gave up 8 hits in 7 innings, which isn't what you want to see, but they kept them off the scoreboard in every inning except the 6th, when Jeff Sues walked 2 and gave up 1 hit that brought in a run. Bryan Morris started the game with a perfect 1-2-3 first inning, striking out two. Donnie Veal pitched a hitless second inning while walking one. Ronald Uviedo and Justin Thomas gave up 2 hits each in their innings of work. Ramon Aguero struck out 2 in his 1-2-3 5th inning. And after Jeff Sues ruined the shut out, Anthony Claggett came in and pitched the seventh. He gave up 3 hits but got out of the inning unscathed, and the Pirates finished their first game of the spring training season with a victory.

For these spring training games we're going to do some 3-up, 3-down, where I will be pick the best 3 performances and the worst 3 performances. I'll keep a tally and see who has the most points when the regular season rolls around. So everybody is at 0 right now, an "up" will give a +1 and a "down" will give a -1.

3-up:
Erik Kratz (1): 2/2, R, HR, 2 RBI
Pedro Alvarez (1): 3/4, R, RBI
Brandon Moss (1): 2/2, R, HR, RBI

3-down:
Gorkys Hernandez (-1): 0/4, 2 SO
Jeff Sues (-1): 1 IP, 2 BB, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 SO
Anthony Claggett (-1): 1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 SO

Tomorrow the Pirates face the Yankees at 1:05, with Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf slated to pitch the first 2 innings. I'd expect to see guys like Tabata, Alvarez, and Kratz back in the lineup, while we see a couple more major-leaguers in there to face some major-league pitchers. The game will be on MLBNetwork and I'm pretty sure it will be on MLB.TV as well, so there are chances for the fans to watch. Regardless if you can watch it or not, be sure to come back right here tomorrow at game time and participate in our Live Chat. I'll be joining the chat around 2:00, and I hope to see you all there.

Let's go Bucs!