North Shore Nine

Eyes were on Jared Jones today as the top pitching prospect looked to cement himself in the Pirates’ rotation with his final spring training appearance. Jones showed lots of good in his 5 innings against the Red Sox, striking out 5 and generating 14 swings and misses. Jared only gave up 1 run in the outing, an unearned run on a rare error by 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes. The Red Sox managed 4 hits against the 22-year-old but had very limited hard contact. Jones’ biggest issue was his control, issuing 4 walks on the day. Despite the location issues with his fastball, he was able to battle his way to 5 solid innings.

Josh Flemming and Roansy Contreras both followed up Jones with scoreless innings of their own, as they both are vying for a spot in the Pirates’ bullpen leading up to opening day.

The Pittsburgh offense was quiet most of the day, having very few answers for Red Sox starter Brayan Bello. Bello eventually cracked in the 6th, allowing one run, but otherwise mopped up the Pirates’ lineup with 7 strikeouts. Connor Joe hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game at 1. The Pirates broke the game open in the bottom of the 8th with a 3 run bomb from Edward Olivares, who had been having struggles hitting this Spring Training. He hit the home run off of Cody Scroggins, who is saddled with the loss today.

The Pirates will play their penultimate spring training game tomorrow at 1:05 vs. the Yankees. Tune into North Shore Nine for a postgame show today and tomorrow as we give you coverage for the Pirates wrapping up of Spring Training.