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.
The Pirates fell to 5-10 in Grapefruit League action after a 7-2 loss to the New York Yankees on St. Patrick’s Day. Jeff Locke started for the Pirates and did not have a good start, giving up five runs in five innings of work, four of which came on two two-run home runs. As important as keeping his walks down this season for Locke will be limiting the long ball and keeping the ball down in the zone. That’s been the Pirates’ pitching philosophy for years. Locke isn’t a strikeout pitcher, so he’ll have to rely on getting ground-outs as frequently as possible.
The lineup for the Pirates was intriguing to say the least. For starters, Andrew McCutchen was slotted in the two-hole, a role he rarely ever sees. It’s been assumed that McCutchen will bat third whenever he’s in the lineup. Sabermetric-types are fans of batting a team’s best player higher in the order, so the Pirates may be looking into that approach this season. John Jaso returned to the lead-off role as he hopes to use his ability to get on base there. David Freese made his Pirates debut in the three-hole, and Starling Marte batted cleanup.
Freese went 1-3 on the day, but struck out twice. McCutchen had a solo home run to lead off the scoring for the two teams. The only other Pittsburgh run was knocked in on a Jaso single in the second inning.
Outside of Locke, Eric OFlaherty gave up a run as he tries to battle for the final bullpen spot, and Mark Melancon continued mowing batters down, keeping his ERA at a perfect 0.00 for the spring so far. Cory Luebke also made his spring debut, pitching a scoreless ninth.
Unfortunately we don’t have video coverage available to us today, so we’re going to send you off with some good tweets from the day. Enjoy!
McCutchen said he never received a specific diagnosis on his knee issue last year. "It just hurt," he said. It doesn't hurt this spring
— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) March 17, 2016
Andrew McCutchen on playing against Pedro Alvarez, his teammate the past five years, and the business of baseball. pic.twitter.com/SXCZ7bTd4S
— Stephen J. Nesbitt (@stephenjnesbitt) March 17, 2016
Yep.
We're goin' green today! #StPatricksDay ☘ https://t.co/W5GLNHyXK2— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) March 17, 2016
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