San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TEAMS MUST START PLAYING ‘REAL GAMES’ IN SPRING
New York Yankees star DJ Lemahieu launched a three-run homer, and that was all for Pittsburgh starter JT Brubaker.
Brubaker walked off the mound with two outs in the bottom of the second inning, having thrown 49 pitches Saturday. And taking advantage of a rule put in place for early spring training games, the rest of the Pirates left the field, too.
Starting today, no more “roll over” breaks like that. Managers won’t be able to call off innings at any point to protect hurlers because of high pitch counts.
That’s fine with Texas skipper Chris Woodward.
“Now that we can’t, it’s no longer an option. So we’ve either got to let that guy go or we’ve got to have somebody warming up,” Woodward said. “So it’s actually good, because we need to start playing real baseball, we need to start playing like real games.”
But what if those innings weren’t cut short?
“I had our analyst guys kind of mock up a run expectancy, two outs if we rolled it, what was the run expectancy there? It’s like .35 — so we’ve won a few games at 7.2 to 4.8, that type of thing. Bases loaded, one out, like there’s a 1.9 run expectancy there, whatever,” Woodward said.
“But I mean, I’m over it. I want some even numbers, some even integers like this, let’s just go real numbers here — 5-4 win, yes,” he said.
Newcomer Corey Kluber made his second start for the Yanks, allowing two runs on four hits in four innings as New York beat Pittsburgh 7-5.
Closer Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless inning in his second appearance.
Belt was belted
Brandon Belt got hit with quite a double-whammy that derailed his offseason.
First, in January, he contracted the coronavirus. Then, he immediately became ill again with mononucleosis.
Gradually regaining his strength and stamina at last, the Giants first baseman acknowledges he isn’t sure he will be ready for opening day. That had been the hope after he worked back from surgery on his right heel in October to remove a bone spur.
The mono zapped him so much the 32-year-old Belt was forced him to stay in bed for a week.
“All of this going on here in the past couple months, I was pretty concerned with how the heel was going to rehab as well, but honestly it’s been going great,” Belt said Saturday.
“It’s still been loosening up. It feels great, it feels so much better compared to last year. Now it’s just a matter of getting the strength back in my foot and just doing day-to-day activities so that I can build the strength and stamina . ... I don’t think I’m too far away.“
Notable
Shohei Ohtani was roughed up in his second start for Los Angeles, allowing five runs on six hits and walk in 21⁄3 innings. He struck out four.
Luis Robert’s homer started Chicago’s five-run second inning against Ohtani. Tim Anderson had an RBI single, Jose Abreu drew a bases-loaded walk and Yoan Moncada hit a two-run single.
Juan Lagares had an RBI double and is batting .500 in his first spring with the Angels. Brandon Marsh, the Halos’ top prospect, had an RBI single.
Newly signed outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. played his first game for Milwaukee, going 1-for-3 from the leadoff spot and scoring a run as the Brewers and Rangers tied 4-4 in seven innings.
Kyle Freeland allowed three hits in four shutout innings in his second start for Colorado, striking out four against Seattle. Greg Bird hit a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth to win it 2-1.