Morning Rundown: Pirates defeat the Marlins, Five minor leaguers released
Keller toss six innings, picks up first win of season
Despite a bit of a late-game scare, the Pittsburgh Pirates held on to defeat the Miami Marlins, picking up their first win of the season by the score of 4-3.
Oneil Cruz hit a laser home run that came off the bat at 115 mph, giving the Pirates enough insurance to hang on.
Andrew McCutchen opened up the scoring with an RBI double. Adam Frazier added a sacrifice fly that would have likely been an out until a Marlin cut off the throw to the plate.
Miami committed four errors in the game.
Mitch Keller was fantastic in his first start of the season, allowing just one earned run on five hits and a walk, striking out four over six innings. He needed 86 pitches to get through his start.
It was another adventurous ninth inning for the Pirates, as David Bednar walked the first batter before giving up a home run to Otto Lopez, making it 4-3.
He’d get the next three in a row, including striking out Derek Hill to end the game.
The Pirates and Marlins play the third of four games on Saturday, with Bailey Falter scheduled to make his season debut. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 pm ET.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have released the following players, according to the transaction log:
C John Lopez
SS Jhonson Pena
OF Luke Brown
3B Jackson Glenn
RHP Grant Ford
Lopez was the team’s 15th-round pick in 2023 out of Puerto Rico. He hit .240/.345/.320 in 29 plate appearances. Brown, Glenn, and Ford have been used mostly as depth the past couple of years.
Pena had a lot of speed but a .675 OPS in his second season in the FCL.
RHP Danny Carrion was placed on the 60-day injured list
RHP Tanner Rainey was placed on the 7-day injured list
RHP Burch Smith was placed on the 7-day injured list
Top Exit Velocity
Oneil Cruz - PIT - 115 mph - Home Run
Liover Peguero - IND - 106.4 mph - Groundout
Henry Davis - IND - 103.6 mph - Flyout
Ke’Bryan Hayes - PIT - 103.3 mph - Flyout
Billy Cook - IND - 102.1 mph - Double
Top Pitch Velocity
Kyle Nicolas - IND - 98.2 mph
Kyle Nicolas - IND - 98 mph
Kyle Nicolas - IND - 97.6 mph
David Bednar - PIT - 97.5 mph
David Bednar - PIT - 97.3 mph
Most Whiffs
Braxton Ashcraft - IND - 14
Mitch Keller - PIT - 8
Ryder Ryan - IND - 7
David Bednar - PIT - 4
Kyle Nicolas - IND - 4
Support the site by becoming a paid member, and get access to all of our premium content, including our Top 25 list with complete player write-ups and video breakdowns, which come out weekly.
It will also give access to my player feature articles from on-site trips.
We have monthly and yearly plans available, with the latter costing an average of $4.16/month.
Indianapolis Indians - 0 vs St. Paul Saints - 11
Top Hitter - Billy Cook: 1-4, 2B
Top Pitcher - Hunter Stratton: IP, 3 H
"The title for most electric positional prospect—and arguably the most impressive prospect overall—belongs to Konnor Griffin. A superior athlete, Griffin is the type of player who stands out just getting off the bus. His swing, tools and explosiveness keep your attention when on the field, too. Griffin worked over the offseason to overhaul a swing that got out of sync at times as an amateur. Now, his swing is smooth and powerful, possessing outlier bat speed and the ability to elevate on his best contact. He moves like a hot knife through butter in center field—his newly anointed position—and attacks the base paths as he hunts extra bases. Griffin looks like a top 10 overall prospect in the making."
Check the link for an equally compelling take on Bubba.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/standout-mlb-prospects-for-all-15-grapefruit-league-teams/
A very nice job by Mitch Keller and some needed bat and leg work from Oneil Cruz, Cutch, etc, and some good defense to support - Reynolds, Endy. Nice to see the Pirates get into the win column, and hopefully they have enough to take the next two in Miami. Still not understanding why Adam Frazier was signed in the first place, and even worse, why he is still occupying a spot of the Active Roster. A dead zone - what upside is expected? Just blocking younger talent.
Liked the number of whiffs for Ashcraft, but that only converted to 5 K's in 3.1 IP. Not bad for a first outing. Scoreless inning by Hunter Stratton in a game that did not have many scoreless innings by Pirate pitching. Two really strong young CF's in that St Paul lineup - Emmanuel Rodriguez 22, and Walker Jenkins 20, both LH hitters with capability of providing average and power. Jenkins was the 1-5 by the Twins in 2023 (Pirates 1-1 Skenes), and Rodriguez was a $2.5 mil IFA by the Twins in 2019.