The Twins weren't ready for what the Pirates brought to the field this afternoon at McKechnie Field, as the Buccos put up 15 runs and defeated the Twins, pushing their spring training record to 2-2-1. Leading the Pirates today was Bobby Crosby, who drove in 4 runs, and Delwyn Young, who drove in 3 of his own. The Pirates got home runs from Crosby and Garrett Jones, who hit his first bomb of 2010 in the 4th inning. It should also be noted that Pedro Alvarez hit a triple today, don't get used to that. The fact that the Twins were playing with a split squad today may have attributed to the beating. I should also mention that I have never heard of any of the pitchers the Twins sent to the mound today. Regardless of that, the Pirates had a great showing at the plate today. They collected 15 hits, which is impressive against any level of pitching.
As for the Pirates on the mound, Ross Ohlendorf made the start and it didn't go exactly how he wanted it to. In the first inning, Denard Span (the lead off hitter) drew a walk off Ohlendorf. Two batters later Justin Morneau drove a mistake pitch a long ways out of the ballpark, and the Twins were on top 2-0. Ohlendorf settled down from then on, and finished his outing with 2 hits allowed in 2 innings pitched, a long with those 2 earned runs. Next in was Chris Jakubauskas, who didn't fair particularly well either. His line looked like this: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO. After that it was smooth sailing for the buccos. Ronald Uviedo, Vinny Chulk, Bryan Morris, Anthony Claggett, and Ramon Aguero teamed up to shut out the Twins through the final 5.1 innings of the game. Morris and Aguero both pitched perfect 1-2-3 innings, and Claggett struck out the side in his frame.
It was all-in-all a very good effort from the Pirates today. They certainly put on a show for the Pirate faithful watching the game in Bradenton.
We've now played 5 Cactus League games, so before the Pirates start a new work-week, let's take a look at some of the stats from some very important Pirates so far this spring:
Pedro Alvarez: 2/10, 2 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 5 SO
John Raynor: 4/10, 2 R, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 2 SO
Ryan Church: 3/9, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 SO
Bobby Crosby: 3/9, 2 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SO
Ryan Doumit: 3/8, 0 XBH, 2 SO
Garrett Jones: 1/8, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 SO
Andy LaRoche: 1/8, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 4 SO
Akinori Iwamura: 2/7, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SO
Andrew McCutchen: 3/6, 1 R, 0 SO
D.J. Carrasco: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
Vinny Chulk: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO
Ross Ohlendorf: 3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Chris Jakubauskas: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO
Ramon Aguero: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
Anthony Claggett: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO
Jack Taschner: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 S0
Steven Jackson: 2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO
Charlie Morton: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO
Daniel McCutchen: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO
Kevin Hart: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB
I bolded those last two for obvious reasons, let's hope that one of them steps up and decides to win the job as the Pirates 5th starter. Neither of them have looked good at all in their very limited innings, but we're hoping that will change soon.
You have to be careful looking at pitching stats in spring training because a lot of them can be deceiving. However, the one that I have found to be completely reliable as a check for how a pitcher is performing is walks. The main thing pitchers work on in spring is control, so if they can't keep their walk rates down while they are consciously trying to just that, it doesn't bode well for them heading into the regular season. The Pirates pitchers have done okay with it so far, with the exceptions of Kevin Hart and Charlie Morton, who were pretty much the last two guys we wanted to see struggle with it. They both have less than 3 innings of work so far so it is hardly even worth mentioning.
The Pirates are back in action tomorrow as they have a split squad day. Half the team will face the Yankees in Bradenton and the other half will travel to play the Tampa Bay Rays. Both games start at 1:05.
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