Bucs Win Opener 6-4

Today's Game: 

Lotta arms getting loose - the hurlers are Chad Kuhl, Wil Crowe, Sam Howard, Clay Holmes, Nick Mears, Carson Fulmer, James Marvel and Shea Spitzbarth. They did pretty well for the first outing (an inning each) in the Bucs 6-4 win over Baltimore.

Two of the O's runs scored on two-out Buc boots; the only legit damage was a two-run blast against Fulmer. The day's biggest red flag from the slab was the seven walks, although that was somewhat offset by 10 whiffs. The attack was primed by homers from Gregory & The Toddfather plus 2-for-2 efforts by shortstop candidates Kevin Newman and Erik Gonzalez, who both also drew a free pass. Newman started at short and E-Gon at second, with prospect O'Neill Cruz playing short for the final four frames. As for the centerfield competition, Shelty opted to go with pups Jared Oliva and Travis Swaggerty.

Bucs finish what Chad started - photo Pirates

Notes:

• The Bucs managed to score six runs yet go 0-for-7 with RISP. It was a typical early exhibition; four of the runs (two per team) were unearned with five errors committed overall. On the other side of the coin, Colin Moran looked quite comfortable at first and made a sweet diving stop of a ball inside the line to save a couple of runs.
• It was an eight inning contest by agreement; this year, teams are allowed to schedule games of five, seven or eight innings to preserve manpower. The O's also used the "relaxed inning" rule, which allows a manager to end an inning after a pitch count of 20+ without facing another batter, and it helped get them out of a first inning jam.
• The contest was played in front of 1,705 fans, which is 25% capacity in Ed Smith Stadium. That's the same percentage the Pirates are using for LECOM Park games.

Tomorrow's Game:

The Bucs travel to Dunedid's TD Ballpark to square off against Toronto. Slated to toss are Mitch Keller, Kyle Crick, David Bednar, Blake Cederlind, Chasen Shreve and Blake Weiman. Game time is 1:07 and the match will be webcast only on pirates.com.