-1600x900.webp)
BRADENTON, Fla. -- It was already “all hands on deck” for the Pirates’ pitching staff heading into a season nearly three-times longer than the one they’d just played. But now with a leader of the staff, Steven Brault, out for the early part of the season, the burden falls elsewhere.
JT Brubaker moved closer to regular season-ready and Clay Holmes pitched a clean inning in the Pirates’ 6-3 victory against the Braves at LECOM Park in Bradenton, Fla.
Brubaker surrendered three runs on a pair of homers by Atlanta slugger Austin Riley with six strikeouts over a spring-best five innings.
“It was just getting through five without having to roll or be re-entered. Just making sure the body is able to go five is only going to help for the next outing,” Brubaker said. “Just feeling good deeper into the game. That was the main goal: Get out of there healthy, throw pitches, make them swing the bat and I felt like that’s what I did.”
Riley first got to Brubaker with a 442-foot, solo shot in the opening inning before he barreled up another and drove a 428-foot, two-run blast in the fourth. Outside of the two homers, a walk to Dansby Swanson, and a double by Abraham Almonte were the only baserunners to reach against Brubaker.
The 27-year-old mostly used his sinker and slider during his first major league season in 2020. But he was also effective with his curveball and changeup and got strikeouts with three different pitches Wednesday.
“Being able to utilize all my pitches is the big key factor,” he said. “Making sure I can throw them for strikes and just out of the zone when needed is the big building point.”
Brubaker has given up eight runs over 10 innings this spring. He was a staple in Pittsburgh’s rotation last season, pitching in 11 games, nine starts, and holding a 4.94 ERA with 48 strikeouts over 47.1 innings. He was already going to be relied upon in the rotation, but now there are more innings to fill in the early going with Brault out.
“Any time you lose a starter, especially this close to the regular season, it can be a little challenging,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I think what we’re looking for out of all of our guys is just to go out and give us consistent innings. ... It’s going to come from a lot of people. Whether we break with 13 or 14 [pitchers], it’s going to take a lot more guys.
“We’re going to rely on the entire group to be able to cover those. No added pressure to anybody. Just basically stay with what you’re doing and cover your innings.”
Brubaker said he’s been getting more depth with his sinker and finding his spots with the pitch better to both sides of the plate. He started to develop the pitch in 2019 when the major league ball was introduced to Class AAA. Brubaker feels there will always be a place in the game for sinkers, a pitch that Holmes is also making a living off of.
Holmes worked a perfect eighth inning on 10 pitches, with an even split between his sinker and curveball. He got a pair of outs on the ground with the sinker, then whiffed Braden Shewmake with a curveball to end the inning. The outing marked his eighth scoreless appearance of the spring.
“I feel really good. Probably the best I've ever felt,” Holmes said. “The sinker feels like it's a pitch that I can just rip, let it play and get ahead with. The fact that I'm throwing the sinker so well and I have the curveball and slider to go with it, I'm just going in there with a lot of confidence, knowing that I can attack hitters early and let my stuff play.”
An ankle injury limited Holmes to just one appearance in 2020. But he was also incredibly effective in four appearances last spring, totaling 3.1 innings. He’s regained whatever it was that differentiated the pitcher with the 5.91 ERA with the one that hasn’t given up a run in his past 11 innings in the Grapefruit League.
“It was probably frustrating,” Holmes said. “I think that where I am right now is definitely built on some things that I built last year. I felt like I was in a really good spot. Had some unfortunate things happen.”
The innings missing from Brault won’t obviously just be made up by the other members of the rotation. Holmes and the rest of the bullpen were already expecting to carry a bigger workload coming into the longer season. Now the opportunity to do more has arrived.
“We're going to need a lot of guys and a lot of good innings out of people that may not even make the opening day roster,” he said. “I think that people feel that, and it's created an environment, and the coaching staff's done a great job, too, people just feel like they can be themselves and go out and compete.
“Knowing the opportunity's going to come has been a real confidence builder for a lot of guys here.”
MORE FROM THIS GAME
• The middle infield combination of Adam Frazier and Kevin Newman continued its torrid spring pace. Frazier homered for the second consecutive game and actually saw his average drop to .563.
“I think the one thing we see is the shortness of the stroke,” Shelton said of Frazier. “At times last year there was length to the swing.”
Newman had two hits -- including a dribbler down the third-base line that proved, when you’re hot, you’re hot -- and a sacrifice fly to improve to a ridiculous .727 in 22 Grapefruit League at-bats. To go with that tandem, Ke’Bryan Hayes chipped in a pair of hits to improve his spring batting average to .450.
• Both of Nick Gonzales’ extra-base hits this spring have come on the first pitch of the at-bat. He absolutely ambushed left-hander A.J. Minter for a solo shot to left in the eighth inning Wednesday, his first of the spring. Gonzales is batting .250 in 12 at-bats.
“I was hoping we could get a smile out of him, but we didn’t. I think everybody in our dugout was pretty excited about that [homer],” Shelton said.
• Prior to Wednesday’s game, the Pirates announced that Brault (lat strain) would be out more than two months. Right-hander Blake Cederlind underwent successful Tommy John surgery Tuesday night. Todd Frazier (lower back tightness) is back taking swings in the cage and Jose Soriano (UCL), Tyler Bashlor (lower back tightness) and Austin Davis (elbow) are all in different stages of their live batting practice routines.
• As part of those roster moves, the club optioned Cole Tucker, whom Shelton said took the news in stride.
“The conversation we had with him was probably one of the better ones I’ve been in when you send guys out,” Shelton said. “He was extremely thoughtful. He had really good questions about his personal growth and things that we identified. Sometimes when you have those conversations, as soon as you tell guys they’re being optioned, they shut off. He was great.”
• Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported that the Pirates made an extension offer to the young third base cornerstone Hayes, but there’s not yet any traction toward a deal. Alex Stumpf has from a source there is "no traction" for a deal.
• Following the game, the club announced that lefty Braeden Ogle, the pitcher of record in Wednesday’s win, and outfielder Hunter Owen were both reassigned to minors camp. The current total of active players at big-league camp is 38 with an injured list announcement expected for Brault.
• On Thursday evening, the Pirates will make the short trip down the road to Sarasota to take on the Orioles with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. Sean Poppen is set to start with Michael Feliz, Richard Rodriguez, Luis Oviedo, Chris Stratton and Edgar Santana scheduled to follow. Keegan Akin starts for Baltimore.