The Pirates dropped a 6-5 game to the Yankees in Tampa. Their spring record is now 5-4-1.
Anderson had a rough time against the Yankees’ regulars. He was fine through two innings, giving up a run in the first. In the third, though, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres connected for back-to-back bombs, Stanton’s with two on. The Pirates eventually rolled the inning over with just one out.
The bullpen mostly pitched well again. Michael Feliz made his first game appearance and got three quick outs on seven pitches. Rich Rodriguez threw two innings, 28 pitches total. He gave up one hit and fanned four, including Aaron Judge, Stanton and Torres in his first inning. David Bednar gave up his first two hits of the spring, but fanned two in a scoreless inning.
Blake Cederlind ran into trouble in the eighth, giving up a hit batsman and two walks, and walking in a run. He fanned two, but Braeden Ogle had to come in to get the third out with a strikeout.
The Pirates’ offense was nonexistent except for a sixth-inning outburst against old friend Justin Wilson. Jared Oliva got the Bucs on the board with his first home run of the spring. Later in the inning, Brian Goodwin connected for a grand slam, also his first dinger. At the time, that tied the game, 5-5. With the two longballs, it wasn’t a great day in the outfield competition for Dustin Fowler, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Wilson’s rough outing, combined with Rodriguez’ strong one, was interesting in light of the fact that the Yankees have lost Zack Britton, probably for half the season.
The Pirates’ hitting prospects continued to struggle badly. Seven of them combined to go 0-for-8 with six strikeouts and two walks (to Cal Mitchell and Nick Gonzales). Kevin Kramer did get his first hit of the spring.
