SPRING REPORT

PIRATES 6 RAYS 6

Joe Musgrove pitched four innings in his spring training debut in the Pirates 6-6 tie against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. Musgrove surrendered two runs on four hits, struck out five and didn’t walk anybody. He felt good about the quality of his pitches.

“I felt really good out there,” Musgrove said. “It was good to get some competition in an ‘A’ game.

“It was good to be able to put into practice some of the things I’ve worked on in the sim games. I had good action. I was able to backdoor some guys and that was something I struggled with last season.”

Former Pirates prospect Austin Meadows hit a slow dribbler toward the mound in the third inning. Musgrove made a sliding play to get the ball. Musgrove wasn’t able to throw out Meadows.

He took solace, though, in being able to test his hip that he came into camp rehabbing.

“I’m happy that I came out of the game healthy. The hip was a concern once I got into a game with actual intensity,” Musgrove said.

“I had to field that little swinging bunt and even though I didn’t make the play I was able to move good and I feel good about that.”

On the mound

Keone Kela bounced back from giving up four runs on four hits against the Minnesota Twins March 9 with a scoreless sixth inning. Kela struck out two and gave up one hit. Felipe Vasquez threw a scoreless fifth inning and struck out the side.\

At the plate

Adam Frazier hit a line drive single to right field to start the first. Frazier advanced to second on a throw- ing error from a pickoff attempt gone awry. Two pitches later Starling Marte hit a towering home run over the leftfield fence and out of LECOM Park. Josh Bell hit his second homer of the spring to right field after Corey Dickerson lined out to pitcher Wilmer Font. The Pirates jumped out to a 3-1 advantage. Josh Bell, Francisco Cervelli, and Jung Ho Kang also hit home runs.

In the field

Dickerson bobbled a Willy Adames first-inning single, allowing Adames to advance to second.

Up next

Game: Pirates at Detroit Tigers, 1:05 p.m., Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland, Fla. Radio: KDKAFM (93.7)