Charlie Morton made the start and looked fantastic. In four innings he gave up just two hits and struck out a pair while shutting out a Tigers lineup that was without the big bats of Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera. Joel Hanrahan gave up a rare run in his inning of work, and Chris Leroux and Ryota Igarashi posted scoreless frames.
The offense once again came from the bat of Matt Hague who hit his fourth home run of the spring. Jose Tabata added three hits but two run wasn’t enough to win the game.
Not good news for McCutchen who seemed to be on the outside looking in to the bullpen picture before this rough outing. It was nice to Leroux bounce back with a scoreless inning after he got beat up last time out, he’s a safe bet to be in a Pirates uniform come April 5th.
We’re now less than two weeks from Opening Day.