Each day during spring training for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pirates Breakdown will give you game recaps, news updates, and video of player and coach interviews, highlights, and more from the day.
On a windy day in Bradenton, Florida, the Pirates captured just their fourth spring training win, and they did it in an unusual way for them. Elias Diaz and Starling Marte both homered, and A.J. Schugel, Guido Knudson, and Kelvin Marte all pitched scoreless innings to close out a 9-5 win over the Tigers.
Here is the starting lineup and some pre-game notes provided by the Pirates.
Here's the lineup & a couple notes.
Gerrit Cole makes his #PiratesST debut.
Tune in:
📺 @ROOTSPORTSPIT
📻 @937theFan pic.twitter.com/ciC1hNrmCX— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 13, 2016
The big story of the day was Gerrit Cole making his spring training debut after rib inflammation slowed his progress by about two weeks. He was both at times impressive and unimpressive. Cole allowed only two hits in his two innings of work, but both were solo home runs. Anthony Gose and former Pirate Casey McGehee gave Detroit an early 2-0 lead. Cole finished the second inning on a John Mayberrry, Jr. groundout, finishing just three pitches shy of his assumed 40-pitch limit.
Cole labored in his two innings of work, pitching deep into counts consistently, but outside of the two home runs, he limited the contact mainly to soft grounders. Andrew McCutchen singled home Josh Harrison on a sharp liner to left field in the third. Starling Marte followed that up by hitting a wind-aided home run to right center.
Tony Watson allowed another home run this spring, this one off the bat of Steven Moya, but Elias Diaz bailed him out with an RBI single. Danny Ortiz doubled in Adam Frazier, who doubled to lead off the inning, to give the Pirates the lead and the eventual winning run.
Pirates fans will soon miss the new hit machine Harold Ramirez, however. He leaves tomorrow to join the Colombian national team for the World Baseball Classic qualifier.
Three Pirates prospects will play in the WBC qualifiers March 17-20: OF Harold Ramirez and Tito Polo (Colombia), RHP Dario Agrazal (Panama)
— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) March 11, 2016
Ramirez has yet to advance beyond Single-A ball, but he still managed to go 11-19 (.579) this spring. He is highly touted as one of the best young outfield prospects in all of baseball, and if last season and this spring is any indication, he may eventually be the best prospect in the entire organization.
One of the most overlooked aspects of the game will be Harrison’s hustle on his double in the first. Too many times in spring we’ll see players take a casual approach to running the bases. Harrison has become one of the most popular Pirates, and Pittsburgh sports figures in general, by his consistent desire to hustle on every play, regardless of the odds.
Unfortunately, due to local network television coverage and MLB regulations, we do not have highlights or video coverage of the game, but here are some tweets from today’s action:
Pirates players are all mic'd up and ready to go! Check out an all new IPB tonight at 6pm on @ROOTSPORTSPIT pic.twitter.com/dPJwQoGI9I
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 13, 2016
Gerrit Cole throws his first official pitch of the spring. #herewego #coletrain. #Pirates https://t.co/vyFlKD7vSn
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 13, 2016
Enjoy a little spring time #StarPower: https://t.co/CbWAyjwN71 pic.twitter.com/1fqlarYyhv
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 13, 2016
Boom!
Elias Diaz just hit one out of McKechnie Field….literally.
Pirates lead 8-5. You can watch the last inning NOW!! -RI
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) March 13, 2016
Today's sellout of 8,771 is the third largest crowd in McKechnie history. pic.twitter.com/52htYjxZES
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 13, 2016
Finally, here are the results from the player of the game Twitter fan poll:
It's time for the #Pirates player of the day fan poll? Who is most deserving of today's honor? Other? Let us know.
— Jason Rollison (@jrollisonpgh) March 13, 2016
The Pirates travel to Fort Myers, Florida tomorrow to take on the Boston Red Sox. Fort Myers was the spring training home of the Pirates from 1955 to 1968. They moved to their current home at McKechnie Field in 1969. Ryan Vogelsong will make his third spring training appearance.
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