Erik Bedard made the start for the Pirates and had a rough first inning. He hit the first batter, gave up a double and a sac fly for the first run, and the second run came in on a groundout shortly thereafter. Bedard added another walk before getting out of the inning. His second frame went a bit smoother, getting a double play ball and a strikeout after a lead off walk.
Evan Meek also made his spring debut and got roughed up a bit. Meek walked two, gave up three hits and four runs in his two-thirds of an inning. Joel Hanrahan was very good with a quick one-two-three inning with two strikeouts, and Doug Slaten, Jason Grilli, and Danny Moskos also posted scoreless innings.
Obviously it's not good seeing two of your big league pitchers having rough outings, but it's the first outing of the year so you can't read anything into this. I fully expect Bedard and Meek to be two of the Pirates better pitchers this year.
The positive side of today was the offense. The Pirates got nine hits including a home run from Nick Evans (which was apparently helped a bit by the wind). Rod Barajas had a pair of hits and a pair of RBI. Pedro Alvarez got two at-bats and looked like Pedro Alvarez in them. He struck out on three pitches in the first at bat and rolled over a ground ball to the right side for an easy out the second time. Hopefully we won't see a ton of that this spring, that would be a real downer.
In other news, somebody was rocking a McEffect shirt at the game today, you can buy your own
right over there ----->
