Kevin Correia made the start and pitched three scoreless innings. He gave up just two hits and struck out one while extending his scoreless inning streak to five to start off his 2012 spring campaign. Impressive stuff from Correia, who is making fans feel a lot better about not having A.J. Burnett for season's start.
Justin Wilson pitched two innings and gave up two runs (one earned) and recorded two strikeouts while walking a pair and giving up three hits. Wilson's stuff is clearly good enough for the big leagues, but he's shown some control problems early on. Bryan Morris, Danny Moskos, and Jared Hughes put up zeroes before Slaten came in for the ninth.
For the first time in over a week, the Pirates recorded less than ten hits. The Bucs got just four hits on the day and only scratched out those two runs. Jeff Niemann threw three perfect innings to start the afternoon off. The Pirates got a run in the fourth when Andrew McCutchen knocked in Alex Presley on an infield single. Pedro Alvarez added another run on an opposite field home run in the fifth, which is exciting to see. Jake Fox put the Pirates on top in the ninth with a monster home run, his first of the spring.
The Pirates kept adding positives to this spring training, and I'm feeling pretty good about the team right now. The 3-6 record is meaningless, they have played a lot better than that. The team is back in action tomorrow at 1:05 against the Phillies in Bradenton.