Sunday was an important day for Pittsburgh Pirates fans as it was their first chance to see Gerrit Cole on a mound in game action.
Cole suffered a rib inflammation and it delayed the start of his throwing program.
He was able to throw his two scheduled innings as the Pirates won 9-5 over the Detroit Tigers in front of a sold out crowd at McKechnie Field. 8,771 fans attended Sunday’s game, the third-largest crowd in McKechnie Field history.
Cole was able to use all of his pitches in the outing and surrendered solo home runs to Anthony Gose and former Pirate Casey McGehee.
After two innings, Cole allowed those two hits and struck out Andrew Romine on a pitch out of the strike zone. It is expected that Cole will next pitch in five days assuming there are no setbacks.
The Pirates offense got going in the fourth inning when Andrew McCutchen singled in Josh Harrison. On the next pitch from Tigers starter Matt Boyd, Starling Marte hit a wind-aided opposite field three-run homer, his first of the spring. Harrison went 2-for-3 at the plate with two doubles in this game.
Elias Diaz added a home run of his own in the eighth inning. Diaz was the designated hitter all game.
The offense shows its true potential Sunday as it had 14 hits on the game.
Minor Matters
Before Sunday’s game Jonathon Niese and Neftali Feliz each faced minor league batters.
Niese was stretched out to four innings and threw 65 pitches while Felix pitched two innings finishing with a total of 33 pitches thrown.
Up Next
The Pirates will next face the Boston Red Sox Monday afternoon. Ryan Vogelsong will pitch for the Pirates against Joe Kelly. John Holdzkom, Kyle Lobstein and Trey Haley each are expected to pitch in relief for the Pirates. This game will be webcast on pirates.com.
UPDATE
The Pirates reassigned eight players in their first cuts of Spring Training.
These players are Steven Brault, Tyler Glasnow, Chad Kuhl, Kelvin Marte, Reese McGuire, Harold Ramirez, Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams.
Glasnow and Taillon specifically will report to the Indianapolis Indians and Ramirez to the Altoona Curve.
A lot of big prospect names and players who have found success stand out on that list, but this is not uncommon.
Assigning a player to minor league camp early allows for them to get quality at-bars or outings while getting to play with players who will be their teammates early in the season.
If the Pirates know where these players will wind up and that is not on the Opening Day roster then sending them to minor league camp is the best way to go.
Both Glasnow and Taillon in particular have been early cuts before. Once again neither had a chance to break north and with these two being considered the top two pitching prospects in the organization this move allows them to best grow instead of seeing their playing time affected by position battles.
Photo credit: @Pirates