Pirates Fall To Orioles 6-4
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) - Some good and some not-so-good in Sarasota which makes Thursday's 6-4 loss to the Orioles a typical Grapefruit League game.
The good – Jordy Mercer was 3-for-3 and Corey Hart went 2-for-4 with a home run as he recovers from the rare hot tub toe injury.
"We just need to get him at-bats," manager Clint Hurdle says. "He'll get tomorrow off then play Saturday (when lefty Wade Miley is expected to start for Houston)."
Hurdle says Hart has also started taking balls in the outfield.
Shoutout to the great Gorkys Hernandez who had 2 hits including a triple, and scored 2 runs.
Reliever Radhames Liz started and allowed 1 run on 2 hits over his prescribed 2 innings and says he's comfortable with making the move to long/middle relief. "I know now I don't to throw 100 (MPH) to be a good pitcher," he says.
Jared Hughes pitched a 1-2-3 7th inning which included a 10-pitch battle with Manny Machado who ended up grounding out to second.
The not-so-good – After 3 straight scoreless outings, Stolmy Pimentel gave up 2 runs on 3 hits, including a home run to touted Cuban Henry Urrutia, in the 8th inning. After 5 scoreless outings, Arquimedes Caminero gave up solo home runs to Ryan Flaherty and Adam Jones.
Hurdle says "urgent isn't the right word" to describe competition for the final roster spots. "We're halfway through," he says, "we're at the 50-yard line."
Hurdle says Andrew McCutchen continues to make progress but doubts he'll play in either game tomorrow when the Pirates split the squad and play the Phillies in Bradenton and the Twins in Fort Myers. Hurdle is pulling rank, by the way -"I'll stay at home" – Bill Jauss will run the team playing 2 hours away.
The news is not so encouraging for catcher Chris Stewart who was "week to week" according to Hurdle after Wednesday night's game game but then Thursday morning, the team issued an injury update and said Stewart wouldn't be game-ready for 2 weeks which means he almost certainly won't be ready play at the start of the season.
Individual Awards Odds From @BovadaLV
- Andrew McCutchen 11-2 to win NL MVP, 2nd behind Giancarlo Stanton at 3-1
- Gerrit Cole 33-1 to win NL Cy Young, which is 12th Clayton Kershaw is 1-1
- Pedro Alvarez is 50-1 to lead MLB in HRs, 21st overall Stanton is the favorite at 7-1 … McCutchen is 100-1
