Bucs Waste Some Nice Twirling In 2-1 Loss to Tampa Bay

Derek Holland got another go to elbow his way into the rotation, and took advantage. He tossed four innings, the longest stint of the spring so far, giving up a run on a hit (fate decreed that it was an Austin Meadows homer, off of Holland's first pitch of the day) with two walks and two whiffs. Kela Keone continued his sluggish spring, giving up a run after a leadoff walk, bounce out and single. Chad Kuhl, Kyle Crick and Nick Burdi were all tough, spinning a clean frame each.

Derek Holland working on that fifth spot - photo Pittsburgh Pirates

For the bats, well, same ol' same ol'. Pittsburgh had seven hits in the first five innings but went 0-for-8 w/RISP. The 6-7-8 hitters (Luke Maile, Socrates Brito and Jared Oliva) left nine runners on the pond and negated two-hit outings by J-Bell and Jason Martin. JM's leadoff triple in the fifth became the Pirates only tally when he was chased home by an Erik Gonzalez grounder. And that was it - Pittsburgh went three up, three down from the sixth inning forward, ringing up 13 straight outs to close the game. Tampa Bay did worse; they had two hits during the day, both of which drove in a run. It was enough.

Tomorrow: The Bucs visit the Blue Jays at TD Ballpark in Dunedin again (they were just there Monday), with the game on MLB.com. Archie is back from his neck sprain and slated to start (they're hoping for two innings); it will be his spring debut. Big Joe Musgrove, who was originally scheduled, will now pitch after Archer.

Arch toes the slab tomorrow - Panini 2019 Leather & Lumber

Notes:

• No pace of play issues today - the game lasted just 2:15.
• Erik Gonzalez made his first appearance since breaking his foot in winter ball. He started at the hot corner. C Luke Maile, who was a bit banged up, also made it back into the order. Both went 0-for-3.
• Pittsburgh is 2-11-1 so far this spring.
• The Pirates agreed to terms with all 27 of their pre-arb (less than three years service) players. The list includes Steven Brault, Nick Burdi, Kyle Crick, Colin Moran, José Osuna, Bryan Reynolds, Ric Rod, Edgar Santana, Jake Stallings, Chris Stratton and Cole Tucker.