Joey Bart finally ended a plate appearance with a positive result in the Pirates' 7-2 loss to the Orioles here today at Ed Smith Stadium, reaching out to get to a second-inning slider from Kyle Bradish and sending it into left field for his first hit since Feb. 23. 

Bart, who also lined out and later grounded out to conclude a nine-pitch at-bat that included four fouled off pitches, now has just two hits in 21 at-bats this spring. There's an obvious need for the Pirates to get offensive production from their catchers once the games begin to matter later this month. But Bart isn't one to care much about the numbers this time of year. 

"I don't really rely too heavily on the results, but getting the barrel to a couple balls is good," Bart said afterwards. "Just trying to chip away at the right things every day and leave the results out of it. ... That's the whole point of it. It's not to look at results. Just go out there every day and compete. That's all I got. The results can be what they are." 

Despite the two at-bats that brought forth less-than-ideal results, there doesn't seem to be much concern with Bart's lack of offensive productivity thus far. Don Kelly acknowledged this morning that sometimes guys tend to press a bit when they're not performing early in spring. It seems like Kelly expects things could change as opening day approaches, particularly so for a guy like Bart who how shown the ability to hit at the major-league level. 

"I think it’s going to be big for everybody and, specifically I guess, pertaining to the catchers," Kelly said regarding the final weeks of spring training. "Continuing to get those consistent at-bats. Most of our guys have gone back-to-back more than the catchers have up to this point, and it will help when they start to get more consistent at-bats, for sure.”