Velasquez struggles, offense quiet in loss
SARASOTA, Fla. — The offensive resurgence the Pirates enjoyed in the past three spring training games came to a screeching halt. Meanwhile, Vince Velasquez endured his worst start of spring training and the outfield continued to experience issues during an 8-0 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday at Ed Smith Stadium.
Baltimore got home runs from catcher Adley Rutschman in the first inning and left fielder Heston Kjerstad in the second, as Velasquez gave up seven earned runs in four-plus innings. The right-hander struggled with his control, especially breaking stuff to the glove side, and never really found a groove.
“Some of the stuff was spinning a little bit,” Velasquez said. “Third time [ facing the Orioles this spring], guys tend to get a little more comfortable with what you’re trying to execute. At the end of the day, I still have to make pitches. I think the tempo [Sunday] was just a little slower than before.”
Rutschman blasted his homer to center field, over a leaping Jack Suwinski. It scored former Pirate Adam Frazier, who led off with a single. The Orioles extended their lead to 3-0 before Kjerstad’s homer when Ke’Bryan Hayes had a throw tick off his glove at third, allowing shortstop Jorge Mateo to score.
Facing Kjerstad, Velasquez fell into a 2-1 hole and tried to locate a fastball down and in. He missed, and Kjersatd absolutely crushed the mistake, putting it either over the batter’s eye or scoreboard.
Walks were certainly an issue for Velasquez, who had allowed one run over five innings in his first two spring starts.
Velasquez consistently pitched out of poor counts and threw just 40 of his 72 pitches for strikes.
“I think it’s a lesson learned to go in with the approach of staying on the attack the whole time,” Velasquez said. “The last two times that I’ve faced them, I really stuck with that game plan. I think it really helped out a lot. [Sunday] got the best of me, but I think it’s just a matter of not forgetting what I’ve done well so far.”
As an offense, the Pirates mounted just five hits, dropping to 7-13-3 this spring.
On the mound
Velasquez enjoyed just one 1-2-3 inning and worked around traffic pretty much the entire time. There also wasn’t a ton of help behind him.
The fifth inning started with a play that was scored a double ... but also featured yet another frustrating fly ball that fell in. It came off the bat of first baseman Ryan Mountcastle and dropped into right field, finding some open grass in front of Connor Joe.
Velasquez walked third baseman Gunnar Henderson and was removed from the game in favor of Dauri Moreta, who has been a really good story this spring, entering with eight strikeouts in 5⅔ scoreless innings in his first six outings.
Moreta nearly got three consecutive outs to escape, but Joe took a bad route to a Nomar Mazara fly ball, allowing a pair of runs to score. The Pirates had another miscue when Moreta gave up a run-scoring single and forgot to back up home plate.
On a positive note, Roansy Contreras returned from the World Baseball Classic and gave the Pirates three innings of scoreless ball, allowing three hits and striking out four.
At the plate
The Pirates had scored 22 runs in their past three but had zero answers Sunday, especially against Orioles starter Kyle Gibson, who twirled five shutout innings, walked none and struck out seven.
If there was one positive sign, it was a double Hayes hit in the second inning, continuing a spring stretch where he’s been getting rewarded rewarded for some high exit velocities. Hayes was once again on time and drove a cutter from Gibson to deep left-center.
“Just getting the bat out in front of the plate, not catching the ball deep and then entering the zone the right way,” Hayes said. “I like where I’m at hitting offspeed because I’ve struggled with that in the past.”
Hayes has hits in three straight and in four of five, going 4 for 14 (.286) with a double, two home runs and four RBIs. Carter Bins also singled and is hitting .500 (6 for 12) after 10 games.
Quotable
“I need to recognize the mid- game adjustment, knowing I need to do a better job with hammering that and jumping on that as soon as possible and not letting things spiral.” — Velasquez.
Up next
Luis Ortiz will start for the first time since returning from the World Baseball Classic on Monday in Fort Myers against the Red Sox. It’ll be JT Brubaker on Tuesday at LECOM Park with the Phillies in town.