The Pittsburgh Pirates ended what was a three0game Spring Training losing streak with a 5-2 road victory against the Boston Red Sox Saturday.
Clayton Richard [1-0] picked up the win throwing two shutout innings and striking out three batters. The victory is his first since June 16, 2013.
The game started with Gerrit Cole throwing 3.2 innings. His twos miscues were Mike Napoli’s first and second home runs. Napoli’s first was a solo shot that came in the second inning, and the second also was a solo homer that made the score 2-1 Red Sox.
In total, Cole allowed four hits and struck out a batter.
“I’m glad I got up to the max,” Cole said to media following the game. “I started to get a little fatigued at the end, so it was nice to still be able to make some quality pitches in the fourth.”
“We wanted Cole to throw between 65 and 70 pitches, so we got that checked off,” manager Clint Hurdle told reporters. “He was out there to work on specific things: Throw his breaking balls and changeup, and the offside pitches were mostly strikes. It was a good outing for him.”
The Pirates tied the contest at one apiece in the fourth inning when Pedro Florimon doubled to score Starling Marte. Marte had doubled earlier in the inning and advanced to third on a Tony Sanchez single.
After Cole was removed from the game, Collin Balester got the final out of the fourth inning. John Holdzkom then extended his spring scoreless innings stretch to four innings. Holdzkom is trying to hold off Arquimedes Caminero among others for a spot in the team’s bullpen.
Stolmy Pimentel put up a zero in his inning of relief putting his scoreless streak at three innings. Richard did the same after his two frames of work. Brad Lincoln earned the save for the Pirates. Lincoln allowed a hit, walked a batter and struck out two in the ninth inning.
The Pirates tied the game in the sixth inning when Sanchez singled and again scored Marte. A three-run eighth inning was the difference in this game. Gustavo Nunez had an RBI ground out and minor league call up Adam Frazier had an RBI single which plated the other two runs.
Marte was 2-for-2 at the plate with a double, triple, walk and two runs scored in the game. Sanchez was 2-for-3
The Pirates are now 5-5-2 on the season and will face the Baltimore Orioles in two games Sunday. The main game will occur at McKechnie Field at 1:05 p.m. in a contest that will be televised by Root Sports and broadcast by 93.7 FM in Pittsburgh and the Pirates Radio Network. Vance Worley will start the game for the Pirates and go against Wei-Yin Chen. Mark Melancon, Antonio Bastardo, Arquimedes Caminero and Bobby LaFromboise are also expected to pitch. There also will be a “B” game against the Orioles that will be played at 10 a.m. Francisco Liriano will start this game and Jeremy Bleich, Charlie Leesman and Josh Wall will all be used in relief.
Notebook: The Pirates reassigned five players to minor league camp. These players are: pitcher Wilfredo Boscan, outfielder Keon Broxton, pitcher Tyler Glasnow, pitcher Adrian Sampson and pitcher Angel Sanchez.
Boscan, Glasnow and Sampson combined to have a 0.00 ERA in 4.2 innings of work. Sanchez had a 5.40 ERA in 1.2 innings. Broxton was 1-for-10 at the plate in 10 games.
“The tough part of this is they all get a brief look” general manager Neil Huntington said. “Adrian has the ability to help us at some point this summer, and we’re looking forward to it.”
