Tucker finds stroke from right side of the plate taken in Lakeland, Fla. (Pirates)

PIRATES

Cole Tucker.

LAKELAND, Fla. -- On just about any other day in any other ballpark, Cole Tucker would have taken a very good pitcher deep to center. Instead, Tucker settled for a triple, which didn’t prevent him from feeling like he’d been robbed by the elements.

“Definitely,” Tucker said with a chuckle. “I was pissed.” 

The triple was the only knock for Tucker in three at-bats during the Pirates’ 3-1 loss to the Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.

From an indoor seat in the press box above home plate, the winds at Publix Field sounded more like blaring sirens in the early innings. Tucker jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Matthew Boyd to start the second and sent Detroit center fielder JaCoby Jones in a dead sprint with his back to the plate. The ball fell short of the wall on the warning track, beyond a diving Jones.

Although he couldn’t trot around the bases, the smash was a hard-earned breakthrough during a frustrating spring for Tucker.

The 24-year-old entered the contest with just two hits in 14 at-bats (a .143 average) and missed about a week and a half at the start of Grapefruit League play with a bruised left thumb.

“I was really pushing to get back, but it's hard to do what you want to do when you're hurt or your hand's swollen or whatever,” Tucker said. “It was a bummer, it did suck, for sure, but I feel like I'm in a good spot now and it's not bugging me. Onward and upward.”

Tucker, a switch-hitter, recorded his only other extra-base hit of the spring -- a double against Toronto lefty Tommy Milone -- as a right-handed batter. 

He doesn’t have much to go on in the majors with just 256 big-league at-bats, but his splits in the minors have him favored as a right-handed hitter. Tucker batted .272 against lefties in the minors and was a .264 hitter in nearly three times as many at-bats against righties.

“I do feel pretty good right-handed, which is nuts because my whole life, I've always felt like a better left-handed hitter, and then I always have a higher average right-handed,” Tucker said. “I do feel really good right-handed right now, and it's fun. I feel like I get up there and I think less and I just try to hit the ball hard, and today that happened.”

Tucker also struck out against Boyd and bounced out against left-hander Tyler Alexander, the pitcher of record for Detroit on Saturday. Tucker is 2-for-7 against lefties this spring.

At a time viewed as one of the organization’s top prospects, Tucker has had a difficult time handling major league pitching since his debut in 2019. He’s a .215 career hitter -- down more than 50 points from his minor league total -- in 93 total games with Pittsburgh. 

After a difficult 2020 season that ended with a concussion, Tucker isn’t reeling over his numbers in the Grapefruit League this year.

“The pressure to perform in the season is way higher,” he said. “The pressure in spring training is to make sure you're prepared for 162. That's the thought process.”

Tucker had a chance to compete for the opening day shortstop role with the Pirates. But instead his spot on the major league roster is in serious question. Which isn’t dire to his future in Pittsburgh -- he’s still young and has options remaining. But even if it had been a more consistent spring for Tucker, the current hitting pace of the club’s other middle infielders would probably be too much to overcome. 

Veterans Adam Frazier and Erik Gonzalez, who both got the day off Saturday, are hitting .591 and .346, respectively. The other middle infielder in the mix, Kevin Newman, has reached base safely in 10 of his first 15 plate appearances this spring, including a double, single and walk against the Tigers on Saturday.

“I'm just following him in the food room, like if he eats Cheerios, I’ll eat Cheerios," Tucker joked. "It’s like he can't [make an] out. It’s unbelievable. He’s on a different planet. It's pretty cool. He just finds holes all the time. It’s pretty incredible.”

Newman started Saturday’s game at second base, then switched with Tucker at shortstop in the fifth inning. The defensive versatility should be beneficial to all four members of that group of middle infielders, especially if the club looks to shift more and more. 

For Tucker, the competition with Newman has become second nature. 

“We’ve always been competing and interweaving and interchanging for like seven years now,” Tucker said. “It’s just kind of what it is and our friendships kind of separated. I’m super happy for him. Obviously, it's cool to see him every day right now.”

MORE FROM THIS GAME

• After Newman stole second following his lead-off walk in the opening inning, the Pirates were 14-for-15 on stolen base attempts. But Newman seemed to be the only one to get a decent read on Boyd’s pickoff move. Jared Oliva and Anthony Alford were both caught trying to run on pickoff attempts by Boyd which resulted in the final outs of the second and third innings. 

That wasn’t the only bad baserunning in the contest. After Tucker’s second-inning triple, he made an ill-advised break for the plate on Oliva’s chopper to the drawn-in infield. Detroit third baseman Jonathan Schoop corralled the bouncer at the chest and calmly made a throw to the plate to get Tucker with plenty of time to spare. Liover Peguero served a ninth-inning base hit to the opposite field, but sank the inning after getting a bad read on a Nick Gonzales blooper, resulting in a double play while the go-ahead run was already on base.

Tyler Anderson held the Tigers to a run on two hits over five innings in the longest outing of the spring for a Pirates pitcher.

Anderson was mostly the beneficiary of some gusting winds at Joker Marchant Stadium, but he gave up a run on a Miguel Cabrera solo shot in the fourth that caught a jet stream out to the seats in the right-field corner. Wilson Ramos, who hit a 110-mph grounder for the Tigers’ other hit against Anderson, likely had a home run held up by the wind later in the game.

The 31-year-old left-hander’s fourth appearance was also his clear-cut best. He worked a ton in the zone, throwing 47 of 66 pitches for strikes, and retired the Tigers in order three times. 

Anderson uses an interesting leg kick which can disrupt a hitter’s timing. The odd kick, a slide step and a -- probably strategic -- pickoff attempt of the slow-footed Ramos may have won him a battle against Nomar Mazara.

• It may be quite important for the Pittsburgh rotation if Anderson can get up to speed quickly and be effective early in the season. The team provided no update on Steven Brault, who was removed from Friday night’s game with tightness in his left lat muscle.

Phillip Evans and Colin Moran needed just two pitches to bring the Pirates their only run in the fourth. Evans jumped on a first-pitch changeup and rolled it down the line for a lead-off double. Moran bounced Boyd’s next pitch past two diving middle infielders to score Evans from second. Evans had two hits in three at-bats Saturday to improve to .263. Moran is batting .250 this spring and has reached base safely in six of his past seven games.

Chasen Shreve pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning while Rich Rodriguez was saddled with the loss after allowing a run on two hits in the sixth. Kyle Crick and Michael Feliz combined to pitch the eighth, in which a run was charged to Crick.

• According to Saturday’s game notes, JT Brubaker threw 67 pitches, Trevor Cahill threw 24, Luis Oviedo threw 23 and Duane Underwood Jr. made 18 pitches in a “B” game on Friday night in Bradenton.

• The Pirates head down south Sunday afternoon to take on the Red Sox in Fort Myers at JetBlue Park at 1:05 p.m. Wil Crowe is scheduled to pitch against Boston right-hander Nick Pivetta, with Sean Poppen, Clay Holmes, Geoff Hartleib and David Bednar expected to follow.

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