Hill’s fine start leads to late ills

Mistakes the fuel for Tigers’ rally

BRADENTON, Fla. — Rich Hill had another strong outing for the Pirates and pounded the strike zone. Meanwhile, the Pirates got sloppy at the end with defense and strike-throwing.

All that and more came out of Pittsburgh’s 10-7 loss against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday at LECOM Park, dropping the Pirates’ Grapefruit League record to 3-8-2.

After the Pirates tied the game at 4-4 with a three-run sixth inning, the Tigers pulled away by scoring five runs in the seventh inning against Angel Perdomo and Colin Selby.

That frame — in which the Tigers batted around — featured all kinds of correctable mistakes: a hit batter, a wild pitch, an error charged to Travis Swaggerty and a misplaced cutter by Selby. It made three efficient innings from Hill, who threw just 33 pitches, feel like a distant memory.

“The game got sloppy there at the end, but Rich was good,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “The core group of guys who are going to Pittsburgh performed well. I thought Rich threw the ball great.”

What the Pirates don’t want is what happened in the later innings, when Perdomo, Selby and Nate Webb were either way out or way in the zone, a bad combination. Detroit scored six runs during the seventh and eighth innings and had five doubles among its seven hits.

On the offensive side, the Pirates’ three-run sixth included a sacrifice fly, an RBI single from Canaan SmithNjigba and Tucupita Marcano’s run-scoring double, his first extra-base hit of the spring.

On the mound

It’s possible nobody has exemplified the Pirates’ increased push to throw more strikes than Hill, who delivered three innings of onerun ball against the Tigers, walking one and striking out two. Hill averaged 11 pitches per frame and threw 24 of his 33 offerings for strikes.

The lone run he allowed came on a poorly executed first-and-third pickoff play.

Crowe followed Hill and gave up two runs — on a home run from Tigers shortstop Nick Maton and another via Kerry Carpenter’s triple.

At the plate

It’s nowhere near soundthealarm territory, but Bryan Reynolds’ quiet spring has been hard to ignore. Through six games, Reynolds is 1 for 15 (.067) with four strikeouts. Obviously putting too much stock on it is silly, especially on March 9, but there’s no doubt that Reynolds has been fighting it.

Also potentially concerning: Shelton said Ke’Bryan Hayes has been dealing with a sore left thumb, although Shelton did say Hayes hit in the cage Thursday and felt fine.

The Pirates benefitted late from a three-run homer off the bat of Drew Maggi, a 33year- old career minor leaguer who continues to have a strong spring.

Quotable

“The mentorship portion is important, but it’s secondary. The primary thing is performance on the mound. He’s had two really solid outings.” — Shelton

Up next

The Pirates travel to Clearwater on Friday to face the Phillies. JT Brubaker will start. Johan Oviedo is expected to start Saturday’s game at LECOM Park