The Pittsburgh Pirates dropped an 11-9 decision to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night in a game that included nine errors and Steven Brault leaving early due to injury.
The game started off poorly for the Pirates, with three errors in the first inning. Adam Frazier committed the first blunder on the first play of the game. The next two were fielding errors by Brian Goodwin while fielding clean singles. Those misplays helped make it a 2-0 game.
In the second, Brault hit a batter, threw a wild pitch, then gave up an RBI single to Austin Hays to make it 3-0. Brault left the game after 33 pitches, with the Pirates announcing that he had tightness in his left arm (latissimus muscle). He’s day-to-day.
Chris Stratton came on for the third inning and he gave up a single, an RBI double and a walk, before being removed with two outs, both on strikeouts. Edgar Santana followed and gave up an RBI single to make it 5-0, before ending the inning with another strikeout.
The Pirates had a two-out rally in the bottom of the third to make this a game. Ke’Bryan Hayes got things started with a double, his sixth of the spring. Bryan Reynolds followed with an RBI single, then he scored on Todd Frazier’s third home run of the spring.
Did you know Todd Frazier played in the Little League World Series? pic.twitter.com/NVimqEaKfv
— Pirates (@Pirates) March 19, 2021
Baltimore came back with one in the top of the fourth as Trey Mancini hit a solo homer.
With help from the Orioles, the Pirates put a five-spot up in the bottom of the fourth. Erik Gonzalez walked, then scored on Brian Goodwin’s single and a throwing error from the second baseman. Wilmer Difo then reached on an error, which allowed Goodwin to score. Adam Frazier singled to put runners on the corners, then Difo scored on a fielder’s choice. Another fielder’s choice allowed Frazier to score, then Hayes came in on a sacrifice fly. The Orioles had just two errors in the inning, but they failed to record an out on two fielder’s choice plays.
Up 8-6, the Pirates added a ninth run in the fifth on an error, back-to-back walks and a ground out. The Orioles tied the game up in the sixth on a bunt single, error, double and home run. All three runs were earned runs charged to Blake Weiman. In the seventh, Sam Howard allowed a two-out two-run homer to break the tie and finish the scoring at 11-9 in favor of the Orioles.
Ke’Bryan Hayes is now hitting .433 after a 2-for-4 game. He has a 1.285 OPS.
Adam Frazier is hitting .591 after a 1-for-4 night.
The other three hitters among the 1-5 in the batting order tonight all have over a .900 OPS. Bryan Reynolds is at .943, Todd Frazier is at .935 and Gregory Polanco is now at a 1.323 OPS.
Oneil Cruz is down to an .045 average after an 0-for-2 night.
Canaan Smith-Njigba collected his first hit (1-for-10) while Calvin Mitchell is now 0-for-8 this spring.
David Bednar tossed a scoreless frame with two strikeouts. He has thrown seven shutout innings on two hits, one walk and 13 strikeouts.
Geoff Hartlieb has thrown 5.1 scoreless innings this spring after keeping the Orioles off of the board in the eighth inning.
The Pirates will be on the road to take on the Detroit Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
